Mainstream media reports that SSM Health, a Catholic health care system, has recently stopped providing so-called “trans surgeries” at their Aesthetic Center in Middleton. The move comes after pressure from the Catholic Church to stop Catholic health-care organizations from providing some types of procedures to people dealing with gender confusion. The change applies to both minors and adults seeking to book such surgeries at the clinic.

Kudos to SSM Health for acting consistently with its professed religious beliefs. These surgeries are not health care. They are elective, radical, irreversible procedures that do nothing to improve the physical or mental health of individuals. Governor Evers recently vetoed in the budget a ban on tax-payer funded Medicaid coverage for puberty-blocking medicine.