A nonbinary Pennsylvania patient is suing Hershey, Pa.-based Penn State Health, alleging a hospital in its network canceled their medically necessary mastectomy less than 24 hours before surgery, citing Catholic doctrine.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler filed the lawsuit July 21 in a county court against the health system, Penn State Health St. Joseph in Reading, Pa., and the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pa.
The plaintiff, EJ Stiles, is a 23-year-old nonbinary resident of Palmyra, Pa., who was diagnosed with gender dysphoria and scheduled for a bilateral mastectomy at Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center on July 24, 2024, according to the complaint. Stiles’ insurer deemed the surgery as medically necessary and preauthorized it.
At 4:39 p.m. July 23, the hospital’s chief nursing officer and vice president of medical affairs called to cancel, telling Stiles the procedure did not align with directives of the Catholic Church, according to the complaint. A scheduling clerk had called roughly two hours earlier to confirm a 5:30 a.m. arrival time.
The lawsuit contends St. Joseph Medical Center “regularly provides breast reductions, mastectomies, and breast augmentations to cisgender women and men,” including breast reductions for macromastia and gynecomastia, while denying the same category of surgery to a nonbinary patient.
Penn State Health does not comment on pending litigation, a spokesperson told Becker’s.
The complaint also alleges the surgeon had previously performed mastectomies for gender dysphoria at the hospital with permission that administrators later said should not have been granted.
The lawsuit’s argument focuses on the hospital’s ownership. It contends Penn State Health and its facilities are “instrumentalities” of Pennsylvania — Penn State is a state-related university — and are therefore bound by the state constitution’s equal protection and religious freedom provisions and its Equal Rights Amendment.
After St. Joseph joined the Penn State Health network in 2015, it continues to describe itself as a “Catholic hospital,” according to the complaint and an ACLU statement.
“If hospitals controlled by a public university can reap the benefits of state funds, then they must be bound by the same constitutional and equal protection mandates as all other state-funded institutions,” Rich Ting, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said in a July 22 statement.
The complaint alleges violations of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act and the equal protection, religious freedom and Equal Rights Amendment provisions of the state constitution. It seeks compensatory and nominal damages, attorneys’ fees and a declaration that the hospital’s conduct was unlawful.
Stiles ultimately underwent the mastectomy at Penn State Health Hampden Medical Center in Enola, Pa., on Oct. 4, 2024, under a different surgeon, the complaint said.
Before suing, the ACLU filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission in January 2025; the commission closed the case that October without investigating, finding Penn State Health was entitled to relief under the state’s Religious Freedom Protection Act.
Penn State Health and Penn State Health St. Joseph are separately pursuing a related declaratory-judgment action in Commonwealth Court, which was sealed in May 2026 and remains pending.
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