Obama toilet transgender rules
Texas and four other Republican-led states filed
another lawsuit Tuesday seeking to roll back the Obama administration’s efforts
to strengthen transgender rights, saying new federal nondiscrimination health
rules could force doctors to act contrary to their medical judgment or
religious beliefs.
The
lawsuit is the second in recent months in which conservative states have sued
over federal efforts to defend transgender rights.
Social
conservatives claimed victory Sunday when a federal judge in Texas halted an
Obama administration directive requiring public schools to let transgender
students use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity. Now they’re
asking that same court to block new regulations intended to ban discrimination
by doctors, hospitals and insurers against transgender persons.
The
latest lawsuit contends that the rules, which were finalized in May, could
force doctors to help with gender transition contrary to their religious
beliefs or medical judgment. Transgender rights advocates called that a
far-fetched hypothetical, saying a person would not approach a doctor who
lacked suitable experience and expertise.
Joining
Texas in the lawsuit are Wisconsin, Kentucky, Nebraska and Kansas, along with
the Christian Medical and Dental Association and Franciscan Alliance, an
Indiana-based network of religious hospitals.
“It
discards independent medical judgment and a physician’s duty to his or her
patient’s permanent well-being and replaces them with rigid commands,” the
lawsuit states.
Jillian
Weiss, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund,
said the new federal rules were groundbreaking and pointed out that other
states already had similar protections. Ten states and Washington, D.C.,
require private insurers to cover transgender health care, while six states
plus the nation’s capital cover such services through their Medicaid programs,
according to advocates.
“The
only thing a doctor is obliged to do is treat all patients, including trans
patients, with dignity and respect and to make treatment decisions free from
bias,” Weiss said. “If a doctor has a sound, evidence-based, medical reason to
delay transition care for a specific patient, that would be respected under the
regulations.”
The
Obama administration finalized the regulations around the time it issued its
directive to public schools regarding transgender students. Thirteen states
signed on to fight that directive, including three involved in the latest
lawsuit, and won a temporary injunction this week from U.S. District Judge Reed
O’Connor.
O’Connor
ruled that the federal anti-discrimination law known as Title IX “is not
ambiguous” about sex being defined as “the biological and anatomical
differences between male and female students as determined at their birth.” He
also said federal officials skirted rules requiring a chance for input and
feedback before new rules were implemented.
The
Justice Department has not said whether it will appeal the ruling.
The
new health regulations broadly affect the health care system because service
providers who accept federal funding have to comply. The U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services referred questions about the lawsuit to the Justice
Department, which declined to comment.
An
increasing number of large employers are voluntarily covering transgender
treatment, following medical recognition that it can lead to healthier outcomes
overall for the individuals involved. The number was up to 418 last year, from
none in 2002, according to federal health officials. Medicare began covering
medically necessary sex-reassignment surgery in 2014. Traditionally its medical
necessity was questioned, and it carried a social stigma.