Dallas, Texas, Jan 3, 2017 / 16:58 pm
A federal judge has ruled against the Obama administration's mandate that health professionals must carry out gender reassignment surgeries, even if they have medical or religious objections.
"The regulation not only forces healthcare professionals to violate their medical judgment, it requires them to violate their deeply held religious beliefs," U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor of the Northern District of Texas said in a Dec. 31 decision granting a temporary injunction against the Obama administration.
"Tragically, the regulation would force them to violate those religious beliefs and perform harmful medical transition procedures or else suffer massive financial liability," the judge added.
Under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, discrimination on the basis of sex is explicitly barred for some federally funded health care programs. The Obama administration's Department of Health and Human Services ruled that the provision bans discrimination on the basis of "termination of pregnancy." The agency also said discrimination on the basis of gender identity is a form of sex discrimination.