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Jionni Conforti claims in a federal lawsuit that the hospital refused to perform his hysterectomy because of religious beliefs.
A Catholic hospital that denied a transgender man a hysterectomy because of "religious beliefs" will have to defend itself in court.
Jionni Conforti, a 33-year-old transgender man from New Jersey, scheduled the surgery in 2015 at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson. However, he claims in his federal discrimination lawsuit that a hospital administrator told him that the hospital could not do the procedure because it was "Catholic."
"I felt completely disrespected as a person," Conforti told the AP. "That's not how any hospital should treat any person regardless of who they are. A hospital is a place where you should feel safe and taken care of. Instead I felt like I was rejected and humiliated."
Religion and transgender health care have already butted heads in 2017. A Texas judge ruled against discrimination protections for transgender patients under the Affordable Care Act before they were set to take effect on Jan. 1.
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