Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the Biden administration’s Department of Health and Human Services over its rule that allegedly forces health care professionals to perform sex change surgeries.
The rule bars health care and insurance providers who receive federal funding from refusing care based on a patient’s gender identity or sexual orientation, which legal experts previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation could force religious hospitals and doctors to perform sex change surgeries.
HHS issued the rule on April 26 under the Affordable Care Act.
The plaintiffs, which include six additional states and the American College of Pediatricians, are asking the court to “declare” the rule “unlawful.”
“Doctors should not be compelled to harm children. But a new final rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act forces doctors to perform, refer for, or affirm harmful gender-transition procedures and forces States to pay for these dangerous procedures in state health plans,” the lawsuit reads.
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NEW:https://t.co/6VUqocKSLL pic.twitter.com/YtOZU8ntDg
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) July 10, 2024
The plaintiffs allege the rule violates health care providers’ First and Fifth Amendment rights.
They also say it was unconstitutionally created and “exceeds Congress’s Article I enumerated powers and transgresses on the reserved powers of the States,” a news release from Bailey’s office said.
Will more states join this lawsuit?
“Joe Biden is once again exceeding his legal authority in order to force his radical transgender ideology onto the American people,” the attorney general said in a statement.
“His administration is threatening to hold federal funding hostage from any healthcare provider that refuses to perform or affirm harmful and irreversible transgender procedures,” Bailey said.
The Missouri Save Adolescents From Experimentation Act, which went into effect in August 2023, bars health care providers from performing sex change surgeries on minors through August 28, 2027.
The states that joined Missouri in the lawsuit are Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Utah.
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