One last kick in the rear from the annus horribilis that was 2016.
A Texas judge issued an injunction Saturday against a federal mandate aimed to protect transgender people, finding that the federal health rule violates existing law.
The preliminary injunction, granted by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, is in response to a lawsuit filed by Texas, on behalf of religious hospital network Franciscan Alliance, and four other states in August.
In the suit, Texas and the other plaintiffs argued that a federal regulation prohibiting discrimination against transgender individuals in certain health programs would force doctors “to perform and provide insurance coverage for gender transitions and abortions, regardless of their contrary religious beliefs or medical judgment,” according to the order. The plaintiffs also claim they could be required to perform gender transition procedures on children. Texas asked the court to block the federal government from enforcing the regulation.
Transgender rights activists have refuted claims that the health rule prevents doctors from using sound medical judgment, arguing instead that it clarifies that health care providers can’t deny services or insurance to someone because that person is transgender.
In Saturday’s ruling against the federal government, the judge indicated that a preliminary injunction was appropriate because the federal health mandate violates the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies develop and issue regulations, and likely violates federal religious freedom protections for the plaintiffs that are private entities.
“While this lawsuit involves many issues of great importance—state sovereignty, expanded healthcare coverage, anti-discrimination protections, and medical judgment—ultimately, the question before the Court is whether Defendants exceeded their authority under the ACA in the challenged regulations’ interpretation of sex discrimination and whether the regulation violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as applied to Private Plaintiffs,” the order reads.
See here and here for the background. The Chron adds on.
Ezra Young, director of Impact Litigation at Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, challenged both rulings as misinterpretations of federal law. He called Saturday’s “flatly contrary to law,” “morally repugnant,” and predicted it would be overturned on appeal.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized that sex discrimination takes many forms, and our nation’s expansive and unyielding nondiscrimination laws necessarily reach sex discrimination whenever and wherever it strikes,” Young said in a statement Saturday.
[…]
Young said the impact could be damaging to transgender people seeking care, who for years have faced denial of insurance benefits or access to doctors they chose because of their gender identity. Young said while some states have similar rules protecting transgender rights, Obama’s move was “groundbreaking.”
“The benefit of the federal law is it sort codifies things and it gave one unifying rule all across the country,” he said.
I’m sure this will be appealed. At least with the intervention of the ACLU, the defense of the lawsuit can’t be tanked by a corrupted Justice Department. I don’t know enough to speculate about the legalities going forward, but I do know this: Some day, and I hope to live long enough to see it, people will look back at the actions of Ken Paxton and the other obstructers of progress, and wonder what the hell they were doing. Paxton and those like him will be seen as the George Wallace and Bull Connor of the early 21st century. I don’t know when that day will come, I just know that it will.
Here’s an example of what this federal mandate, if not rejected, will bring:
http://abc7chicago.com/news/transgender-man-catholic-hospital-denied-my-hysterectomy/1687982/
The medical judgement of the Catholics is that removing a healthy organ isn’t necessary. OK, so instead of hospital shopping to find a hospital that will perform the surgery, this person sues. Even if the hospital wins the case, they still are out a considerable amount in legal fees, money that otherwise might have been spent on indigent care.
Hospitals shouldn’t preach religion, and churches should stay out of health care. It should be illegal for them to buy hospitals and then only dispense care if it fits with religious mumbo-jumbo guidelines.