Faith-based hospitals and doctors won a major legal victory Tuesday when the Biden administration gave up in its attempt to force medical professionals to perform procedures, including gender transition surgeries, that violate their conscience.
At issue was a December ruling by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals that favored a coalition of Catholic doctors and hospitals in blocking a Biden administration rule. That rule, handed down by the Department of Health and Human Services, interpreted the 2010 Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) as prohibiting “discrimination on the basis of gender identity” and therefore requiring doctors to perform “gender-affirming care.”
On Tuesday, the Biden administration said it would not appeal the Eighth Circuit decision.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a legal group, represented the faith-based coalition in court.
“After multiple defeats in court, the federal government has thrown in the towel on its controversial, medically unsupported transgender mandate,” said Luke Goodrich, vice president and senior counsel at Becket. “Doctors take a solemn oath to ‘do no harm,’ and they can’t keep that oath if the federal government is forcing them to perform harmful, irreversible procedures against their conscience and medical expertise.”
Big news! The Biden Admin has given up any Supreme Court appeal on the transgender mandate, and our victory is complete. It is UNLAWFUL for the feds to force religious doctors to perform gender transitions against conscience and medical judgment.https://t.co/h8KIy0Tz4J
— Luke Goodrich (@LukeWGoodrich) June 21, 2023
In a news release, Becket said the legal victories “mark a victory for compassionate, evidence-based healthcare and protect religious doctors and hospitals across the country from suffering multimillion-dollar penalties for following their religious beliefs, conscience, and informed medical judgment.”
The Eighth Circuit ruling last year said the Biden rule would result in a “substantial burden weighs on the exercise of religion.”
Goodrich, on Twitter, called the lack of an appeal “big news.”
“The Biden Admin has given up any Supreme Court appeal on the transgender mandate, and our victory is complete,” he wrote. “It is UNLAWFUL for the feds to force religious doctors to perform gender transitions against conscience and medical judgment.”
Related:
Court: Biden Admin. Can’t Force Catholic Doctors to Perform Gender Transition Surgeries
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Pornpak Khunatorn
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
