A consumer group just launched a campaign targeting Michigan’s second-largest health system for “prioritizing politics over patients” via its “woke” policies, Fox News Digital reported Monday.
The health system’s response? Bury the evidence.
Consumers’ Research, which claims to be “America’s oldest consumer protection agency,” wants Americans to know that the Detroit-based Henry Ford Health system “has focused on weaving discriminatory practices into everything it does, administering harmful transgender treatments on kids, and prioritizing a radical climate agenda.”
To that end, the group has created a website with links to evidence to support its claims. It also plans to place “mobile billboards outside of hospital locations in Detroit and Macomb, a billboard near the state capitol in Lansing, and chalk stencils around the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit,” reported Fox News.
Trans World Pipeline
About a month ago, Henry Ford Health confirmed to the Daily Caller that it continues to offer gender treatments such as drugs and surgery to minors despite President Donald Trump’s January 28 executive order terminating federal funding for such procedures. Indeed, noted Consumers’ Research:
Henry Ford Health touts it is one of the few health systems that provides care for “any transgender individual,” including adolescents, and has healthcare providers with a specific LGBTQ+ designation, including doctors with a specialty in pediatrics and LGBTQ+ health.
One of those pediatric LGBTQ+ specialists, Dr. Maureen Connolly, coauthored a 2016 piece in the Journal of Adolescent Health contending that
gender-affirming medical therapy and supported social transition in childhood have been shown to correlate with improved psychological functioning for gender-variant children and adolescents.
The Cass Review, released just last year, found that the evidence for such claims is sketchy at best.
In 2022, Henry Ford Health partnered with Detroit’s Ruth Ellis Center, which “works to create a supportive environment and community for LGBTQ+ young people,” to treat 429 transgender young adults using, among other things, “gender-affirming care.”
Diversity Perversity
Any organization that is so far in the tank for the LGBTQ+ cause is, of course, likely to also be fully on board the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) bandwagon. Henry Ford Health is no exception. Its website says — or, rather, said — that “diversity always will be the foundation on which Henry Ford Health stands.” Furthermore, “Diversity, equity and inclusion are woven into the fabric of everything we do.”
According to Consumers’ Research:
Henry Ford Health created a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) strategic plan with four pillars: “Anti-Racism and Social Justice Advocacy,” “Diverse Workforce and Inclusive Culture,” “Community Empowerment,” and “Healthcare Equity” aimed to “dismantle and unplan inequities and pursue justice.”
Henry Ford Health Senior Vice President of Community Health and Equity and Chief Wellness and Diversity Officer Kimberlydawn Wisdom — whose titles are a mishmash of woke buzzwords — wrote in 2021:
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are simply not enough. Diversity, equity, and inclusion alone can only mitigate the damage of the past. To prevent the mistakes of the past from burdening our communities in the future, our ultimate destination must be justice.
Justice requires altering the conditions that allow inequities to emerge and grow.
Henry Ford Health forces its leaders to participate in “unconscious bias,” healthcare equity, and other DEI training. Its physician network demands that its members apply this indoctrination to their everyday work. And the health system has a “Supplier Diversity Program” that prioritizes purchases from businesses that are owned by women, minorities, and “LGBTQ persons,” among others.
Sorry About Your Ventilator
Henry Ford Health is also big on climate activism. In a 2021 press release announcing a partnership with DTE Energy to purchase wind and solar energy, CEO Bob Riney said:
At Henry Ford, health equity is at the foundation of everything we do. It’s an unfortunate fact that low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately impacted by poor environmental conditions, which are exacerbated by climate change. By investing in clean, renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure, we aim to address health disparities and the growing impacts of climate change regionwide, especially in our historically marginalized communities.
In addition, the health system is trying to achieve “net zero” emissions by 2050, although Consumers’ Research pointed out that “there will be a significant challenge to operate solely on renewable energy while maintaining reliable service for patients.”
Web of Delete
“Henry Ford Health is prioritizing politics over patients,” Consumers’ Research executive director Will Hild told Fox News Digital.
He asserted:
Considering how many resources Henry Ford has squandered on needless, extreme woke programs, the hospital has rendered itself almost indistinguishable from an activist group, not only spewing radical left-wing talking points but actively imposing these ideologies onto patients and staff. Rather than change course, Henry Ford Health has chosen to wear its transgressions with pride, a chilling testament to how far it has strayed from its original purpose.
The health system, in fact, seems to have no interest in addressing the Consumers’ Research allegations. Instead, it chose to hide some of the evidence. Wrote Fox:
Fox News Digital reached out to Henry Ford Health for comment, but the hospital did not respond to the media inquiry. However, the hospital did delete several DEI sections from its website over the last 24 hours that were archived by Fox News Digital.
Consumers’ Research is doing yeoman’s work in exposing Henry Ford Health. Unfortunately, until a sea change occurs in the health system’s culture, the work’s impact may prove to be minimal.
