The Biden administration is demanding that a court order Christian physicians and faith-based hospitals to do body mutilations, also called transgender surgeries, on patients when they are told to.
Physicians and hospitals were protected from those requirements most recently by a federal judge’s ruling in North Dakota. In that decision, U.S. District Judge Peter Welte granted, in a case brought by the Religious Sisters of Mercy, Catholic Benefits Association and others, a request to prevent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, from enforcing the Obamacare requirement.
Biden’s appeal is in support of Barack Obama’s mandate in 2016 that required doctors and hospitals to do transgender surgeries upon a mental health professional’s referral.
Obama provided no conscience or religious exemptions.
The demand also had been struck down by a federal court in Wichita Falls, Texas, earlier.
The surgeries are intended to “change” a person’s sex, although the concept is a misnomer to begin with, since being male or female is embedded in the human body down to the DNA level.
But the requirement was part of the socially progressive effort created by the Obama administration that presumes people have the ability to change.
Welte had said, ‘The court declares that HHS’s interpretation of Section 1557 that requires the Catholic plaintiffs to perform and provide insurance coverage for gender-transition procedures violates their sincerely held religious beliefs without satisfying strict scrutiny under the [Religious Freedom Restoration Act].”
“Accordingly, the court permanently enjoins and restrains HHS, Secretary Azar, their divisions, bureaus, agents, officers, commissioners, employees, and anyone acting in concert or participation with them, including their successors in office, from interpreting or enforcing Section 1557 … or any implementing regulations thereto against the Catholic plaintiffs in a manner that would require them to perform or provide insurance coverage for gender-transition procedures, including by denying federal financial assistance because of their failure to perform or provide insurance coverage for such procedures or by otherwise pursuing, charging, or assessing any penalties, fines, assessments, investigations, or other enforcement actions.”
The Daily Caller News Foundation said the appeal “seeks to force religious doctors and hospitals to provide transgender surgeries, regardless of religious objections.”
The appeals puts Xavier Becerra, the Health and Human Services secretary and a huge promoter of abortion under any circumstance, against the Sisters and CBA. Becerra earlier fought against the Little Sisters of the Poor in his demands to have them pay for abortion.
“This is bad for patients, doctors, and religious liberty,” Becket senior counsel Luke Goodrich said in the foundation report of the Biden appeal.
“The plaintiffs are religious doctors, hospitals, and clinics who joyfully serve ALL patients regardless of sex or gender identity. They routinely provide top-notch care to transgender patients for everything from cancer to the common cold. They also provide millions of dollars in free and low-cost care to the elderly, poor, and underserved–care that is jeopardized by the government’s attempt to punish them with multi-million dollar penalties.”
The foundation report noted, “Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Becerra have all stood against the Catholic Little Sisters of the Poor in their battle with the Supreme Court to avoid paying for employees’ birth control against their religious beliefs.”
And as California’s attorney general in 2014 Harris pushed the Supreme Court to force Hobby Lobby’s owners to provide contraception to women, in violation of their beliefs.
She complained, “A woman’s access to essential services, including contraception, should not be restricted because of the religious views of her employer—particularly when the right to these services is protected under federal law.”
When the Supreme Court rejected her opinion, she called the results, “Shameful.”
The North Dakota judge concluded compliance with the challenged laws “would violate the Catholic plaintiffs’ religious beliefs as they sincerely understand them.”
“The ‘exercise of religion’ involves ‘not only belief and profession but the performance of (or abstention from) physical acts,'” he said.
The EEOC’s “interpretation” of Title VII, which forbids employers from engaging in “sex discrimination,” requires the CBA and its members to provide insurance coverage for gender-transition procedures. The court ruled that “violates their sincerely held religious beliefs without satisfying strict scrutiny.”
Just the News noted that in 2016, HHS redefined Section 1557 of Obamacare to ban insurance plans “with gender-transition exclusions.”
But HHS failed to establish and exemption for religious reasons.
The judge said “a violation under the RFRA is akin to a violation of their First Amendment rights.”
Content created by the WND News Center is available for re-publication without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].
SUPPORT TRUTHFUL JOURNALISM. MAKE A DONATION TO THE NONPROFIT WND NEWS CENTER. THANK YOU!
This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
