The Biden Administration has declined to pursue its appeal to the United State Supreme Court in an 8th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimous ruling on December 8, 2022, that blocked a transgender mandate the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) forcing doctors and hospitals to perform gender-transition procedures on their patients.
In May 2016, under the Obama administration, the HHS civil rights office finalized regulations for an ACA provision called Section 1557. The agency added “sexual orientation and gender identity” to the provision, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability or sex — including pregnancy — in covered health programs or activities.
In 2020, HHS under President Donald J Trump, issued a rule changing Section 1557 that defined “sex discrimination” as only applying when someone faces discrimination for being female or male. But that effort was blocked by other courts.
On January 21, 2021, a court struck down the Obama-era HHS mandate, and the Biden administration appealed to the 8th Circuit, which heard oral arguments in the case Dec. 15, 2021.
The 8th Circuit concluded unanimously in December of 2022 in the Sisters of Mercy v. Becerra case that the HHS mandate violates a key federal law protecting religious liberty — the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The Obama-Biden mandate required doctors to perform gender-transition procedures on any patient, including children, and required private insurance companies — except plans run by Medicare and Medicaid — and many employers to cover gender reassignment therapy, regardless of if it violated their conscience and best medical judgment, or face severe penalties and legal action.
Since the deadline came and went without an appeal by the Biden Administration, the 8th Circuit Court ruling is now final.
On August 26, 2022, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, struck down the same mandate ruling unanimously in Franciscan Alliance v. Becerra.
After years of litigation, doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies are exempted from covering and performing gender-transition procedures on a basis of their conscience.
Author: Lynnwood Times Staff
3 Responses
Freedom of religion article. In the first paragraph, it should be ‘forcing’ not ‘forces’ as is written. You can’t have another main verb (forces) in the same sentence w/o a connector or the start of another clause. So, ‘forcing ‘, a reduced form or a verb form, is appropriate since the sentence does not have any form of connection between the two verbs. The first verb of the sentence is of primary focus and is considered to be in the main clause (independent clause) and ‘focusing’ , a verb form, is of secondary importance and is in a reduced dependent clause or a phrase. The structure allows the reader to know where the primary information of the sentence is, the main focus, and where the secondary information is, Information that is somewhat relevant but not the main focus of the sentence.
Actually on second thought, what I said in my first comment is generally true, but in the case of your article, the best correction is : “…..mandate by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that forces doctors and hospitals… ” or ” …mandates by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services forcing doctors and hospitals…”. The main focus is on the mandates. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is of secondary importance and is thus preceded by the word ‘by’. Sorry, I should have spent more time analyzing the sentence structure before posting a reply. Still the reason for the correction remains valid.
done