The National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents 1,100 Sutter Health employees at hospitals, hospice and home health settings, is calling on the Northern California healthcare giant to reverse its decision to end gender affirming care for anyone under 19, slated to go into effect Wednesday, December 10.
“Our union believes that everyone should be able to receive the care they need,” NUHW President Emeritus Sal Rosselli said. “Trans kids endure potentially life-threatening trauma navigating who they are in a culture that targets them for abuse. By giving into pressure from the Trump Administration, Sutter is worsening transphobia in our society and putting lives at risk by refusing to provide patients appropriate medical care.”
NUHW represents workers at Sutter California Pacific Medical Center hospitals in San Francisco, the Sutter Center for Psychiatry in Sacramento and Sutter Care at Home and hospice programs in counties across Northern California.
NUHW has long supported the right to gender-affirming care and the principle that no government should interfere in personal medical decisions. The union has opposed similar actions by other major California medical providers, including Kaiser Permanente, where NUHW represents nearly 5,000 mental health professionals.
“Medical decisions should be made by patients in consultation with their loved ones and their doctors,” NUHW President Emeritus Sal Rosselli said. “It’s deeply troubling that Sutter would stray from this principle. NUHW stands ready to help Sutter in any way push back on the pressure that led to this decision and preserve gender affirming care.”
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The National Union of Healthcare Workers is a member-led movement that represents 19,000 healthcare workers in California and Hawai’i, including more than 1,100 workers at Sutter Health.
