An appeal has been made by the Biden administration to keep the transgender mandate, which will order religious hospitals and doctors to perform sex change operations, regardless of their beliefs.
The Biden administration has sent in an appeal to maintain the transgender mandate, a non-discrimination provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that will require medical professionals and institutions to perform gender-transition surgeries regardless of their conscientious and religious beliefs. The news came from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a non-profit, public interest legal and educational institution.
"#BREAKING: The Biden Admin just filed an appeal seeking to force religious doctors and hospitals to perform potentially harmful gender-transition procedures against their conscience and professional medical judgment," Becket's vice president and senior counsel Luke Goodrich stated on Twitter on Tuesday.
"The Biden Admin says it can punish doctors and hospitals for 'sex discrimination' unless they perform controversial gender-transition procedures," Goodrich said in a follow-up tweet.
According to the Catholic News Agency, the transgender mandate was first issued by the Obama administration in 2016 as part of a nondiscrimination provision in the ACA. The mandate ordered doctors and hospitals to provide sex change procedures upon a referral of a mental health professional.
The controversial mandate did not allow exceptions for religion and conscience, which meant that religious hospitals and doctors with certain beliefs will be forced to perform surgeries that oppose their conscientious and religious beliefs. Becket argued that because most of the medical professionals in the U.S. are funded by Medicare or Medicaid, they will be forced to comply with the transgender mandate.
The Blaze reported that the transgender mandate has faced major resistance from health professionals. In fact, just in January, a North Dakota judge ruled against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and sided with a group of Catholic hospitals who argued that the transgender mandate "violates their sincerely held religious beliefs without satisfying strict scrutiny under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act."
In December 2016, over 19,000 healthcare professionals, nine states, and a number of religious organizations came together to file two separate lawsuits against the transgender mandate and two federal courts placed an injunction on the mandate.
Morever, there is an ongoing case against the transgender mandate in which the the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to the lower court on April 15, leaving them to decide whether it should be permanently abolished.
In 2020, the Trump administration added conscience protections for medical professionals who opposed the transgender mandate. However, a federal court placed an injunction on that rule.
Conservatives are concerned that the Biden administration would punish the very same doctors and health professionals who are providing care for the young and elderly, and as Goodrich of Becket said, "religious doctors, hospitals, and clinics who joyfully serve ALL patients regardless of sex or gender identity."
Goodrich accused the Biden administration of "jeopardizing" the care that they provide and "[attempting] to punish them with multi-million dollar penalties" in the name of anti-discrimination for sex change procedures that have been found to be "deeply harmful."
He added that aside from being physically and mentally harmful, there is "not enough evidence" to show that these sex change procedures provide better health outcomes for patients.
