Those filing the lawsuit claim, “The regulation forces doctors to perform controversial and sometimes harmful medical procedures ostensibly created to permanently change an individual’s sex including the sex of children”.
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Ramping up its fight over the rights of transgender people, Texas is expected to file a lawsuit Tuesday against the federal government over a regulation prohibiting discrimination against transgender individuals in some health programs.
Under the Obamacare rule, health providers can not refuse care to transgender patients that is typically offered, but the government didn’t specify what medications or procedures should be included.
Social conservatives claimed victory Sunday when a federal judge in Texas halted an Obama administration directive requiring public schools to let transgender students use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity. “I am disappointed in the Obama Administration’s lack of consideration for medical professionals who believe that engaging in such procedures or treatment violates their Hippocratic Oath, their conscience, or their personal religious beliefs, which are protected by the Constitution and federal law”.
“Ultimately, this case boils down to a very simple question of statutory interpretation: Can HHS redefine the term “sex” to thwart decades of settled precedent and impose massive new obligations on healthcare professionals and sovereign States?” the complaint says. Not only does the rule require taxpayers to fund all treatments created to transition to a different sex, it also forces health care workers, including physicians, to provide controversial services.
“The Obama Administration continues its attacks on the constitutional rights and religious freedoms of Kentuckians”, said Gov. Bevin.
Texas is joined in the suit by Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kentucky and Kansas.
“The Texas preliminary injunction has no effect whatsoever on this case, as it is directed only against the federal government defendants in the Texas case, and enjoins them from enforcing the relevant guidelines only against the 13 state plaintiffs in that case, which do not include North Carolina”, attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal wrote.
Those rules would be enforced “even if a doctor believes such procedures are harmful to the patient”, according to the lawsuit.
The Justice Department has not said whether it will appeal the ruling.
“The ACA rule does not mandate what kind of care doctors can and cannot give”, Keisling said.
The new lawsuit asks the same Texas court to block new regulations meant to ban discrimination by doctors, hospitals and insurers against transgender persons.
“The federal government has no right to force Texans to pay for medical procedures created to change a person’s sex”, Paxton said in a release.
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The new health regulations broadly affect the health care system because service providers who accept federal funding have to comply.
