Health conference canceled after JPS pulled sponsorship over abortion, trans agenda items

The Ralph J. Anderson Women’s Health Symposium was supposed to begin on the morning of Sept. 8. Speakers and attendees from across the state were traveling to Fort Worth for the day-long conference, organized by the UNT Health Science Center.

The conference has been held for decades. But the morning before this year’s conference, at 10:40 a.m., one of the organizers sent an email to her colleagues saying that one of the conference’s sponsors, JPS Health Network, was abruptly withdrawing funding because the event schedule included talks about abortion and gender affirming surgery.

Hours later, the event was canceled completely, leaving would-be attendees and speakers baffled.

“I am just blown away,” wrote Kelly Zarwell, HSC’s educational program assistant director.

Zarwell’s emails, obtained by the Star Telegram through a public records request, said she had heard from Dr. Christine Hoang, the head of graduate medical education for obstetrics and gynecology at JPS’ lauded residency program. According to Zarwell’s email, JPS had decided to withdraw its financial sponsorship of the symposium because of the “controversial topics” on the agenda. Hoang was also prohibited from having her residency booth at the event, the email said.

“JPS wants no connection due to the medical abortion and gender affirmation surgery topics,” Zarwell wrote in the message.

Zarwell and Hoang did not respond to the Star-Telegram’s request for comment for this article.

Both abortion and gender-affirming care are considered part of the standard care by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Although abortion is illegal in most cases in Texas, medical residents specializing in obstetrics and gynecology are still required to “participate in the management of participation of abortions” in their training, according to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

One Texas professor, who attended the conference regularly, said she was disheartened by the decision to cancel the conference and by JPS’ decision to withdraw. The Star-Telegram agreed not to publish the professor’s name because she feared retaliation for speaking openly about these topics without her employer’s permission.

People who are considering gender-affirmation surgery or abortions are vulnerable people, the professor said.

“I think it sent a message to the community of scientists and physicians and health providers in the community that these lives and issues they are facing weren’t that important. And that saddens me,” she said.

In an interview on Sept. 8, the day the symposium was canceled, the Star-Telegram asked JPS CEO Dr. Karen Duncan about the symposium and whether JPS had withdrawn from the event.

“I’m not sure what you are actually referring to and why our name would be brought into it,” Duncan said at the time. “That was not a JPS symposium. There should not be any ‘because of JPS, that something would get canceled.’”

She added: “It’s not clear to me how JPS participation would affect the cancel. I’m a little confused.” She declined to respond to questions about the symposium agenda.

In an email on Tuesday, JPS spokesperson Jessica Virnoche said: “We have no additional comment beyond what we have already communicated. The decision to cancel the event was and is the sole decision of UNTHSC.”

The HSC communications office did not respond to an email or phone call asking why the symposium was canceled.

Zarwell’s email appears to have spurred a flurry of discussion at HSC, which is home to a medical school as well as graduate programs for public health, pharmacy and nursing.

John McKenzie, the executive director of HSC’s division of academic innovation, wrote to a colleague at 12:14 p.m. on Sept. 7 that JPS was withdrawing its financial sponsorship of the symposium, equivalent to about $6,000.

“They just decided this today, and the symposium is tomorrow,” he wrote.

McKenzie added that JPS had a representative on the symposium’s planning committee who was involved throughout the planning process.

“Due diligence was done here on HSC’s side, and it sounds like higher ups at JPS were nervous about the inclusion of these important topics,” McKenzie wrote.

By 3:23 p.m., with less than 17 hours before the conference was scheduled to start, the conversation had made its way to the top echelons of HSC leadership: HSC President Dr. Sylvia Trent-Adams asked Dr. Priya Bui, who was serving as the co-chair of the symposium, to call her to discuss the symposium. Trent-Adams added that she was on the phone with UNT chancellor Michael Williams as she was asking Bui to call her.

Within the hour, a decision was made to cancel the symposium.

At 4:01 p.m., Bui emailed Trent-Adams: “Thank you very much for taking the time to let me know. I would like the opportunity to postpone to the Spring and revisit the agenda.”

The annual conference was previously known as the Pelham P. Staples Jr., MD, Educational Symposium before it was renamed in honor of the late Fort Worth obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Ralph Anderson.

These types of conferences are standard for health professionals, because they offer what are known as “continuing medical education” credits. Virtually all health professionals are either required or encouraged to fulfill a certain number of CME credit hours every year to maintain their license to practice and to stay up to date on the latest research in their field.

The symposium at HSC was scheduled to cover a range of topics related to women’s health care, including sessions on postpartum maternal health care and vaccine uptake during pregnancy, as well as the panels on abortion and gender-affirming care.

In the emails released by HSC, symposium organizers reiterated that the agenda had gone through all necessary vetting and was deemed appropriate for the venue. All courses that are used for continuing medical education credits must meet evidence-based guidelines.

In July, Dr. Frank Fillipetto, dean of the medical school at HSC, wrote to a colleague that after speaking with McKenzie, he was “reminded that as a public institution that must protect free speech on campus that we shouldn’t limit discussion because of its controversial nature.”