A mandate from Joe Biden for physicians to perform body mutilations – through transgender surgeries – on demand has been blocked by a federal judge.
The decision came in the case Franciscan Alliance v. Becerra and blocked Biden’s demand that religious doctors and hospitals perform gender transition surgeries on patients – including children – even when the procedures can be medically harmful.
The case was brought by a religious hospital, an association of over 20,000 healthcare professionals, and nine states, and the decision makes it the second court ruling blocking the administration from enforcing the policy.
“Today’s ruling is a victory for compassion, conscience, and common sense,” said Luke Goodrich, vice president and senior counsel at Becket. “No doctor should be forced to perform controversial, medically unsupported procedures that are contrary to their conscience and could be deeply harmful to their patients.”
WND several months ago reported when U.S. District Judge Peter Welte in North Dakota ruled in a case brought by the Religious Sisters of Mercy, Catholic Benefits Association and others.
Welte ruled that Christian physicians and hospitals were exempt from a requirement originally created by Barack Obama’s Obamacare healthcare legislation.
Obama in 2016 insisted that all doctors and hospitals do those transgender surgeries – which mutilate the patient’s body – upon a mental health professional’s referral.
Obama provided no conscience or religious exemptions.
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. Biden has continued with that agenda.
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.”
Becket explained Biden insisted on trying to revive the mandate, but the new ruling blocks that.
“These religious doctors and hospitals provide top-notch medical care to all patients for everything from cancer to the common cold,” said Goodrich. “Everyone benefits when doctors are able to follow their professional medical judgment and their Hippocratic Oath to ‘Do No Harm.'”
The new decision is from Judge Reed O’Connor of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Wichita Falls Division, who agreed to “a permanent injunction” to the Christian plaintiffs “to be exempt from the government’s requirement to perform abortions and gender-transition procedures.” He had issued a similar ruling against the mandate back in 2019, too.
The ruling permanently enjoins Xavier Becerra, Biden’s appointee to HHS secretary, “from interpreting or enforcing” the law “in a manner that would require them to perform or provide insurance coverage for gender-transition procedures or abortions, 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.”
Obama’s claim was that such orders were appropriate under the idea of Obamacare being “nondiscriminatory.”
Biden has appealed the recent North Dakota ruling.
The plaintiffs are a religious hospital & group of over 20,000 healthcare professionals (@CMDANational) who gladly serve ALL patients regardless of their sex or gender identity. They provide top-notch care to transgender patients for everything from cancer to the common cold. 2/
— Luke Goodrich (@LukeWGoodrich) August 9, 2021
But a controversial HHS regulation threatens multimillion-dollar penalties unless they perform gender-transition procedures, including on children, even when the procedures violate the doctors’ conscience and medical judgment and could harm patients. https://t.co/3KO5w1jHan 4/
— Luke Goodrich (@LukeWGoodrich) August 9, 2021
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This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
