By Peter Pinedo
Houston, Texas, Sep 3, 2024 / 16:45 pm
A U.S. district judge has placed a nationwide block on a Biden-Harris administration rule mandating that federally funded hospitals perform surgical interventions to alter the body’s appearance to mimic that of the opposite sex.
This comes after Texas and Montana sued the administration over changes it made in May to the Affordable Care Act’s section prohibiting discrimination based on sex.
The rule broadened the meaning of “sex” to include “gender identity.” This meant that federally funded hospitals were required to perform so-called “gender reassignment” surgeries or face a range of penalties including having their funding removed.
Texas and Montana argued that the change violated portions of state law that prohibit such surgical interventions performed on minors’ sexual and reproductive organs and ban Medicaid funding for these operations.
The two states argued that the Biden administration has given them “an impossible choice” to either “violate and abandon state law or risk devastating financial loss.”
The ruling, issued on Aug. 30 by Judge Jeremy Kernodle for the Eastern District of Texas, expanded an earlier court decision that blocked the mandate for hospitals in Texas and Montana. Kernodle said the Biden administration’s mandate is “unlawful” in all hospitals, not just those in Texas and Montana.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called the ruling a “major victory for Americans across the country.”
“When Biden and Harris sidestep the Constitution to force their unlawful, extremist agenda on the American public, we are fighting back and stopping them,” Paxton said.
Jennifer Carr Allmon, executive director of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, told CNA that the Texas bishops are “grateful” for the nationwide stay.
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Allmon said that gender transition surgeries are “not authentic health care” because these procedures “interrupt natural developmental processes and can result in infertility and other serious health risks, especially for children, all of which may be irreversible.”
“Health care providers must be free to refuse to perform these harmful interventions without risk of penalty,” she said. “The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops advocates for health care that is oriented toward honoring the dignity of each person while respecting the religious liberty and conscience rights of medical professionals.”
The Biden administration will likely appeal the ruling to the Fifth Circuit Appellate Court.
