A federal court has stopped President Biden’s mandate that would force doctors to conduct transgender surgeries against their own consciences.
Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas, gave “a permanent injunction” to the plaintiffs “to be exempt from any government requiring them to perform abortions and gender-change operations.”
“Today’s decision protects patients, is in line with current medical knowledge, and guarantees doctors are not forced to break their religious beliefs or medical judgment–a win for conscience, common-sense, and good medicine,” VP and senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty said.
The plaintiffs are a group of more than 20,000 healthcare professionals, Goodrich said.
The ruling permanently prevents Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra “from enforcing or interpreting” the law “in a way that would force them to conduct or provide insurance coverage for gender-change operations or abortions, including by denying Federal assistance due to their failure to conduct or give insurance coverage for such operations or by otherwise pushing for or assessing any fines, investigations, or other actions.”
Today’s decision rightly says the mandate violates federal law. This is now the second federal court to block the mandate. The Biden Admin appealed the other decision (also a @BECKETlaw case) to the 8th Circuit: https://t.co/CffRjRFZO4 5/
— Luke Goodrich (@LukeWGoodrich) August 9, 2021
Former President Obama’s team issued a mandate in 2016 forcing doctors and hospitals to give transgender surgeries after a mental health professional’s referral. This transgender mandate, an interpretation of the Affordable Care Act’s nondiscrimination measure, did not have any conscience or religious exemptions.
A group of over 19,000 healthcare experts, several religious groups and nine states challenged this mandate in two courts, according to Becket.
A North Dakota Eastern Division court refused the mandate in 2021 and Judge O’Connor of the Texas court denied the mandate back in 2019, ruling that the government “must not force religious doctors to conduct gender change procedures in breaking of their conscience and medical judgment,” said Becket.
The Biden White House appealed the new North Dakota ruling back in April, court filings revealed, pitting Becerra against the Catholic Benefits Association, religious Sisters of Mercy and being the second time Becerra was involved in legal actions against nuns.
Author: Scott Dowdy
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