(The Center Square) – An organization is calling for the end of federal funding to what it calls “woke” hospitals in the U.S. that use taxpayer dollars for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, gender surgeries on children, and climate activities instead of focusing on their mission to “provide high-quality care at affordable costs.”
In Consumers’ Research’s Consumer Warning report, five such hospitals are listed along with their so-called woke initiatives, the hospitals being Cleveland Clinic, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Henry Ford Health, Memorial Hermann Health System, and Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital.
Consumers’ Research is an independent educational nonprofit as stated on its website.
The report says that “instead of lowering costs and passing savings onto patients, hospitals have spent considerable money, time and manpower pursuing a partisan agenda pertaining to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), radical gender ideology, and climate activism.”
Each of the five hospitals listed in the Consumers’ Research report “receive millions of dollars in federal funding, government-mandated savings programs, and tax exemptions,” meaning that taxpayers are often the ones paying for “various forms of progressive activism.”
Consumers’ Research executive director Will Hild told The Center Square that “hospitals should be focused on providing high-quality care at affordable costs, not peddling a woke agenda, which takes away vital resources that should be going to patient care.”
“The reason hospitals receive benefits like tax-exempt status is because they are supposed to be serving the community,” Hild said.
“Promoting discriminatory policies and performing sex-change procedures on kids does not enhance the communities hospitals are supposed to be helping,” Hild said. “Every hospital CEO should read this Consumer Warning and promptly end woke policies in their organizations and refocus on their core mission, which is providing the best quality patient care at affordable prices.
“Until then, their federal funding should be investigated to ensure taxpayers are not footing the bill for a political agenda,” Hild said.
The political agenda is evident at Cleveland Clinic in its commitment to embedding diversity and inclusion into every process and practice, pledge of over $7 million annually in 2016 toward “greening initiatives,” and its previous performance of hundreds of “irreversible” transgender treatments and procedures on minors, even lobbying against a 2023 Ohio bill prohibiting such procedures, according to the report.
Cleveland Clinic told The Center Square: “We are in full compliance with all state and federal laws and strongly refute the false and misleading assertions made in this report. The report intentionally shares information that is outdated.”
“For more than a century, Cleveland Clinic’s mission has been to care for life, research for health, and educate those who serve,” the hospital said. “Cleveland Clinic is a nonpartisan organization, and we neither have nor promote any political agenda.”
Vanderbilt University Medical Center is also involved in DEI initiatives and climate activism, according to the report, and provided “big money maker” gender transition surgeries to minors before Tennessee outlawed it.
According to the report, Henry Ford Health has “implemented extensive DEI training programs for its health system leaders” and still offers gender-affirming care to minors as of March 2025.
A Henry Ford Health spokesman told The Center Square that “Henry Ford Health respects and fully complies with all state and federal anti-discrimination laws.”
“For more than a century, Henry Ford Health has been fully committed to serving Michigan’s richly diverse communities, providing health care services and employment opportunities to everyone,” the spokesman said. “Our commitment to non-discrimination remains steadfast.”
Memorial Hermann Health System puts a large emphasis on the equity portion of its DEI initiatives and “maintains that ‘health equity’ is paramount,” according to Consumers’ Research.
Additionally, Memorial Hermann has performed gender-transition procedures on minors, the report says, though the hospital denies that.
“This report reflects information that is outdated, factually inaccurate and intentionally misleading,” a statement from the hospital to The Center Square says. “As one example of factually inaccurate information, Memorial Hermann does not provide and has never provided any form of pediatric gender transitioning treatment to patients younger than 18 years of age at any of our facilities. Secondly, we are compliant with all state and federal price transparency regulations. As the largest nonprofit health system in Southeast Texas, we are committed to delivering compassionate, patient-centered care that provides high-quality outcomes to all we serve. We do not discriminate based on race, gender or any other characteristics, and we abide by ethical and legal standards of care. We are equally committed to ensuring our policies comply with all applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations.”
Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital “considers ‘diversity and inclusion’ to be part of its founding value,” and prescribes to minors puberty blockers and hormone therapy, according to the report.
John Hopkins, Memorial Hermann and Vanderbilt Memorial Hermann did not respond to The Center Square before publication.
The report additionally states that these five hospital systems are “non-compliant” with “federal price transparency rules” – non-compliance meaning that a hospital actively refuses “to show patients full prices.”
Initiatives taken up by Consumers’ Research to combat woke ideology in hospitals include a letter to President Donald Trump, a letter to Congress, letters to the governors where the five hospitals in question are, and mobile billboards calling for the end of the funding of woke hospitals.
In a statement obtained by The Center Square, Hild said that “it is time to stop funding woke hospitals.”
“Until every hospital in America stops pushing discriminatory DEI policies, mutilating kids’ bodies, and promoting climate politics, their federal funding streams and other government benefits like tax-exemptions should be investigated to ensure taxpayers are not supporting any hospital’s reckless ideological activism,” Hild said.
