Abbott Koloff

Staff Writer, @AbbottKoloff

The St. Joseph’s Healthcare System said in federal court papers that a Totowa transgender man’s lawsuit against it threatens its freedom of religion as a Roman Catholic health provider.

St. Joseph’s filed the papers on Friday in response to a federal anti-discrimination lawsuit brought last month by a transgender man who said the hospital refused to allow his surgeon to perform a hysterectomy on him at any of its facilities after he was given a go-ahead by hospital staff.

Jionni Conforti, 33, alleged in the lawsuit that St. Joseph’s violated federal and state anti-discrimination laws, requested that the health care system be ordered to change its policies, and asked for monetary damages to be determined at a trial.

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The lawsuit was filed days after a federal judge in Texas temporarily blocked federal regulations that extend anti-discrimination protections to transgender patients. Some groups, like the Catholic League, have said the new rules would force some hospitals run by religious groups to perform procedures that might violate their beliefs.

St. Joseph’s, which operates hospitals in Paterson and Wayne, cited the Texas ruling in its filing, saying it established a nationwide injunction that “precluded” some of Conforti’s claims against its hospitals. An attorney with Lambda Legal, an advocacy group for gay and transgender people that is representing Conforti, has said the Texas ruling would have no bearing on the case.

Conforti’s attorneys said his physicians determined a hysterectomy was “medically necessary” to reduce the risk of cancer related to hormone treatments he was receiving after being diagnosed with gender dysphoria – a condition in which a person’s gender identity is different from his or her apparent biological gender. They also pointed to St. Joseph’s bill of rights, posted on its website, which says patients have the right to treatment and medical services without discrimination based on “gender identity or expression,” among other categories.

Conforti has said that his surgeon, who has admitting privileges at St. Joseph’s, was prepared to perform the procedure in 2015 when a hospital administrator sent an email saying that “as a Catholic Hospital we would not be able to allow your surgeon to schedule this surgery.” He later had the surgery elsewhere after finding a different surgeon.

The health care system previously said in a statement that it is bound by regulations established by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2009 that provide guidance on health care and moral issues.

In its response to Conforti’s complaint, it wrote that courts do not have the right to exercise jurisdiction over religious directives for Catholic hospitals. It added that forcing the hospital “to approve a sterilization procedure in furtherance of gender transition would be contrary” to those regulations and “contravene Defendants’ sincerely held religious belief.”