St. Joseph Hospital is a Catholic hospital in Nashua, New Hampshire, that was founded in 1908. In 1996, St. Joseph Hospital became part of Covenant Health Systems, a non-profit Catholic health care system. In 2018, John Jurczyk was appointed as president of St. Joseph Hospital.
In August 2021, St. Joseph Hospital posted a video on YouTube, “St. Joseph Hospital Recognizes Pride Month,” hosted by the chair of the hospital’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council, Rosemary Ford, and featuring an interview with Ronnie Content, who performs in drag as Veronica LaForce.
Ronnie spoke in the video:
It’s always like one of those secondary questions of ‘Will this doctor accept me or will this whole staff accept me?’ and that’s one of the things that as being a queer black person I already have to deal with. Hey, is this person okay with a person of color? Now on top of that I have to add my gender expression, my gender identity as part of the access to health care.
In October 2021, St. Joseph Hospital livestreamed a panel, “Grand Rounds: LGBT & Medicine,” featuring former Nashua Rep. Eric Eastman, who now calls himself Erica, and another man, Ruffa Sofia Oronos, who identifies as a woman.
On the panel, Physician Assistant Eric Senneville says:
So how do we create welcoming environments in healthcare? Well we show visual representations of support like our little rainbow stickers and pins. We ask every patient what their preferred name is. Update charts to accurately reflect names and pronouns. We never assume a person’s gender identity based off of their appearance. We never assume sexual orientation or diseases based off of someone’s sexual orientation. We should change all healthcare forms to be inclusive of LGBT people. We should ask patients as well how they refer to their own anatomy especially in trans people.
PA Eric Senneville got his wish, and in January 2022, I was compelled to fill in new fields in my medical records at St. Joseph Hospital, including “Gender Identity” and “Sex Assigned at Birth.”
Related: Hospital Puts Gender Nonsense in Medical Records
In October 2022, I noticed a T-shirt for sale in the hospital gift shop. The message on the shirt read: “EVERYONE is cared for here. St. Joseph Hospital. A Member of Covenant Health,” with seven hearts, three with stripes. There was a rainbow-striped heart representing the LGB community, a heart with yellow, white, purple, and black stripes representing the non-binary community, and a heart with pink, blue, and white stripes representing the transgender community.
At the same hospital visit, at the other end of the lobby, there was a painting of Jesus with the message “Jesus, I Trust in You!”; a crucifix above it; and a relief of St. Joseph below.
In September 2023, I saw the St. Joseph Hospital Mobile Health Clinic bus in Nashua, and the side read, “EVERYONE is cared for here,” with the same striped and solid hearts as the T-shirt. The message and hearts are still on the bus as of October 2025.
Rosemary Ford, chair of the hospital’s DEI Council, “leads St Joseph Hospital’s Mobile Health Clinic’s presence in the community,” according to her LinkedIn profile.
Convenant Health claims to abide by the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. As of 2023, those directives prohibit “interventions or actions supportive of the transgender ideology.”
The prohibition on interventions or actions supportive of the transgender ideology is framed in the context of Catholic theology and anthropology. The Church views the human person as a unity of body and soul and affirms that one’s biological sex is a gift from God when we are created that should be accepted and respected.
In November 2023, detransitioner Amanda Stewart filed a lawsuit against several medical institutions and providers, including St. Joseph Hospital, for “medical malpractice, conspiracy, and negligent infliction of emotional distress” for performing sex trait modifications on her.
Defendants Dr. Turco, Dr. Madden, Dr. Valerie Bell, the Dartmouth-Hitchcock health system, and the St. Joseph Hospital further failed Amanda by misleading her into an inappropriate, unnecessary, painful, life-altering, and radical “gender-affirming” hysterectomy and oophorectomy in which her uterus, ovaries, and fallopian tubes were removed in furtherance of the misleading and unattainable objective of making her into a man.
Defendant Jennifer E. Madden, M.D. is an individual with an address of 3 Northern Blvd Ste A3, Amherst, New Hampshire 03031. She is a primary care physician who recommended Amanda for a double mastectomy and “cleared” Amanda for a double mastectomy and a hysterectomy and oophorectomy. She is affiliated with Defendant St. Joseph Hospital of Nashua, N.H, and/or its affiliates.
Dr. Jennifer Madden is a man identifying as a woman.
In June 2012, Dr. Turco referred Amanda to Dr. Valerie Bell, who worked within the Dartmouth-Hitchcock health system and at St. Joseph Hospital, for a “hysterectomy with LeFort procedure,” as Dr. Bell explained she was unable to perform either a vaginectomy or reconstructive surgery.
Around that time, Amanda met with Dr. Bell, who recommended a hysterectomy and removal of Amanda’s ovaries, and a LeFort procedure “to close the vagina.” Dr. Bell recommended these procedures, despite noting certain concern for “psychiatric problems.” Dr. Bell’s purported basis and goal for the surgery was to stop Amanda from having a menstrual cycle and appear more as a man. However, Dr. Bell did not refer to or establish that the Benjamin Criteria or SOC 7 were met, because they were not.
It constituted malpractice and negligence for St. Joseph Hospital of Nashua, N.H. to lead Amanda into surgical procedures that were harmful to her, and to perform a hysterectomy and oophorectomy and related procedures on her.
In June 2024, the hospital’s Mobile Health Clinic participated in the Nashua Pride Festival.
And again in June 2025.
Watch the recording of the livestream from St. Joseph Hospital “Grand Rounds: LGBT & Medicine.”
