The Biden administration has taken a step back from its previous attempt to compel Catholic health care providers to conduct gender transition surgeries.
This week, the Justice Department allowed the deadline for filing an appeal before the Supreme Court in the case of Sisters of Mercy v. Becerra to elapse. This is the second instance where the administration has chosen not to defend the "transgender mandate" of the Affordable Care Act.
From The Washington Post:
The practical effect of the decision: Catholic medical professionals and organizations in the church’s extensive U.S. health care network will not be required to perform gender transition surgeries or provide medical insurance coverage for their employees to undergo such procedures.
Becket Law, which represented a coalition of Catholic hospitals, nuns and a Catholic university, cheered the department’s decision to drop the legal battle after the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a temporary block on the mandate in December.
“After multiple defeats in court, the federal government has thrown in the towel on its controversial, medically unsupported transgender mandate,” said Luke Goodrich, Becket vice president and senior counsel. “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.”
The Sisters of Mercy coalition sued in 2016 after “the federal government reinterpreted the Affordable Care Act to require doctors and hospitals across the country to perform controversial gender-transition procedures, including on children, even when doing so would violate doctors’ consciences,” Becket said.
This was the second legal win in less than a year for Catholic health care providers who objected to the mandate.
This is yet another big win not only for Catholic's, but for protecting our nations children from this far-left rhetoric.
