by Jonathon Van Maren
The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal ordered a Christian family doctor to pay $28,100 after declining to inject a trans-identifying 14-year-old with a hormone blocker because “doing so would go against his religious beliefs.”
“Dr. Henry Ajaero, who has run a family practice in Delta since 2014, was ordered to pay the compensation in a Sept. 1 B.C. Human Rights decision, which found his conduct was discriminatory,” the CBC reported. In March 2021, he was asked to inject Lupron and stated that “he did not feel comfortable administering it” due to his religious beliefs and “because it is outside the scope of his practice.”
Ajaero, who attended medical school in Nigeria and practiced medicine there as well as in South Africa and rural British Columbia before coming to Delta, sees about 50 patients per day and has close to 3,000 patients. The decision noted that “his religion is an important part of his life.”
The teen at the center of the case began identifying as transgender in 2020, and Ajaero referred the teen to the B.C. Gender Clinic, where the teen was prescribed a puberty blocker to be injected every three to four weeks. Although the drug can be injected at home, the family requested that Ajaero do it, but he declined when he discovered what it was. He had been the teen’s doctor for about four years.
“He explained this was for religious and cultural reasons, and he hoped that was OK,” the tribunal’s decision stated. “Mother Q said it was not OK.” Ajaero’s own charting read: “I noticed that the injection is for gender re-assignment as patient is already in the waiting room with (her) mother. I called mother into the room and explained to her that I would not be able to give the injection. Based on my religious belief and cultural background.”
Instead, the family promptly initiated legal proceedings and never spoke with him again. They found a walk-in clinic to administer the injection that same day.