A Harris-Walz victory this November will all but guarantee that medical institutions and professionals committed to “do no harm” will be forced to participate in the gender delusion. And make no mistake about it: that means doing harm. The situation is already out of control. Whatever happens, more robust enforcement of conscience protections is needed to save our health care system from the gender mafia.
Although many prominent medical associations embrace the medicalization of gender ideology, some nurses, doctors, and other health care workers have started speaking out about the dangers of sex-change medical “interventions” — particularly when, horrifyingly, they involve children. They often do so to the detriment of their own livelihoods.
Take, for example, Dr. Ethan Haim. When he was a surgical resident at the Houston-based Texas Children’s Hospital, Haim gave conservative journalist Christopher Rufo records indicating that the hospital had secretly continued sex-change procedures on minors despite pledging that it would no longer do so. He was later indicted by the Department of Justice for allegedly obtaining health information for patients not under his care.
Another Texan, former Texas Children’s Hospital nurse Vanessa Sivadge, was fired after claiming that the hospital used Texas Medicaid to cover attempted sex changes for children. She had previously requested a religious accommodation to be transferred out of the endocrinology clinic. Her request was denied. She shared her story with Rufo, who later made it public on X. The following day, the hospital put Sivadge on leave, citing “things shared publicly” which she believes was a reference to the story and her request to transfer.
Or consider Valerie Kloosterman, a long-time physician assistant in Michigan. Kloosterman sued a University of Michigan-run hospital after she was terminated for refusing to use transgender pronouns or refer patients for “gender reassignment” procedures. After she requested an opt-out because of her Christian beliefs, she was summoned to a meeting with hospital administers during which they called her “evil” and a “liar,” and “mockingly told her that she could not take the Bible or her religious beliefs to work with her, and blamed her for gender dysphoria-related suicides.”
While medical conscience rights are protected by law, enforcement is another matter. Many defenders of federal conscience rights do not have private rights of action, but instead rely on enforcement by the federal government. So when the administration is an ally of gender ideology, conscience rights and religious freedom are neglected at best and demonized at worst.
For example, the Biden administration has given lip service to religious freedom and conscience rights while undermining the federal government’s obligation to protect these cherished rights. Xavier Becerra, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, dismantled the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division of his Department’s Office of Civil Rights and reassigned the division’s staff. He also stripped the office of its authority to enforce conscience and religious freedom protections under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment, delegating this important task to other department staff. Let’s also not forget the Department of Justice’s decision to go after Dr. Haim.
Ignoring conscience rights comes in handy for the current administration as it tries to reintroduce a “transgender mandate” — a distortion of the Affordable Care Act’s anti-discrimination protection to include “gender identity.” The mandate would prevent medical providers from refusing to perform transgender procedures, require insurance companies to cover them, and demand that doctors refer to patients by their preferred pronouns. Doctors who don’t comply could be excluded from federally funded healthcare programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Because the Biden-Harris administration has been unwilling to stand up for medical conscience rights, groups like Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) are urging states to enact laws to ensure that medical professionals and organizations cannot be forced to participate in services that offend conscience. The group notes that seven states have already enacted their own medical conscience rights laws, known as “MED Acts.”
In contrast to the continued promotion of gender ideology by major medical associations, one group called Do No Harm is pushing back. This membership organization representing physicians, nurses, medical students, patients, and policymakers seeks to “highlight and counteract divisive trends in medicine” including youth-focused gender ideology.
The Biden-Harris administration has been vigorously complicit in allowing gender ideology to infect America’s health care system with little regard for the conscience rights of doctors, nurses and other medical workers. Its quasi-religious attachment to the wilder claims of gender ideology has already permitted horrible abuses of basic human rights. Regardless of the outcome of November’s election, more robust enforcement of conscience rights is needed for the sake of patients and their health care teams. And if Kamala Harris wins, then it will become a matter of extreme urgency.
Andrea Picciotti-Bayer is director of the Conscience Project.
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