By Aaron Miller-
A federal appeals court has permanently blocked the Biden administration’s bid to force doctors and insurers in the US to perform or pay for gender-transition procedures even if they object on grounds of conscience and medical judgment.
The Biden administration has 90 days to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court or 45 days to ask the 8th Circuit court to rehear the case.
The court based its decision on constitutional protections of religious freedom.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit issued the unanimous ruling on Friday blocking the controversial U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) transgender mandate.
The ruling followed a suit from religious organizations and states to block the mandate, with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and the North Dakota Attorney General’s office representing some of the groups.
“The federal government has no business forcing doctors to violate their consciences or perform controversial procedures that could permanently harm their patients,” Luke Goodrich, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, said in a statement.
“This is a common-sense ruling that protects patients, aligns with best medical practice, and ensures doctors can follow their Hippocratic Oath to ‘do no harm.’”
Becket filed the lawsuit in 2016 on behalf of a coalition of Catholic hospitals, a Catholic university, and Catholic nuns who run health clinics for the poor.
The mandate which was issued in 2016 interpreted the Affordable Care Act in a way that required doctors to perform gender-transition procedures on any patient, including children, even if the doctor was convinced the procedure could harm the patient.
The mandate also required the vast majority of private insurance companies and many employers to cover the costs of gender-transition therapy or face penalties.
Harmful
The HHS’s own panel of medical experts acknowledged that gender-transition procedures can be harmful and in many cases not medically justified, with HHS determining that Medicare and Medicaid shouldn’t be forced to cover such procedures.
After an appeal by the challengers seeking a permanent injunction to block the mandate, the court agreed in 2021 to grant permanent relief to doctors and hospitals.
“The government’s attempt to force doctors to go against their consciences was bad for patients, bad for doctors, and bad for religious liberty,” Goodrich said in a statement.
Transgender Issues-
The Biden administration has leaned towards defending gay rights and transgender issues, advocating strongly on behalf of people seeking gender-transition procedures and therapies, strongly policies such as so-called conversion therapy, as it’s dubbed by critics, and “change-allowing therapy,” as it’s often referred to by advocates.
The therapy helps people who want to change their sexual orientation or who want to de-transition after earlier changing their gender identity or expression.
“The phrase ‘Conversion therapy’ is provocative, pejorative, and ill-defined,” wrote André Van Mol, a board-certified family physician and co-chair of the Committee on Adolescent Sexuality of the American College of Pediatricians.
“It is a jamming tactic that combines both anti-religious allusions (‘conversion,’ implicitly forced) along with intimidation against therapists who allow patient-directed investigation of possible change.”
Executive Order
In June, President Joe Biden pledged to defend the LGBT community from various forms of discrimination and expressed opposition to conversion therapy- a process he has expressed as “efforts to suppress or change an individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.”
He called for an eradication of such therapy across the nation, describing the practice as “harmful” and “discredited” and that it “can cause significant harm, including higher suicide rates.”
Twenty states and more than 100 municipalities have banned “conversion therapy” for minors, widely viewed as harmful and unsuccessful.
However, advocates for conversion therapy believe it is a potential and necessary tool for helping those suffering with gender dysphoria overcome their situation.
The topic has also caused great controversy in England after students at the elite Cambridge university held angry protests last month following the invitation of outspoken former journalist, Helen Joyce, who is widely opposed to cross sex identification, and asserts males and females as distinct and immutable groups of people.
Joyce has criticised organisations and gender ideologists who encourage gender dysphoric individuals to change their gender, stating that children who feel distressed at their sex are ill-served by being told they can change it.