Pediatricians and other health care workers are suing the Biden administration over a mandate tied to health care which would, according to the suit, require medical professionals to provide gender-related services and surgeries despite objections, medical or otherwise.
Objections, even to treating children, would be considered “discrimination,” pursuant to Biden’s reinterpretation of sex to include sexual orientation and “gender identity.”
“The American College of Pediatricians, the Catholic Medical Association, and an OB-GYN doctor who specializes in caring for adolescents filed suit in federal court to challenge a Biden administration mandate requiring doctors to perform gender transition procedures on any patient, including a child, if the procedure violates a doctor’s medical judgment or religious beliefs,” read a press release from the Alliance Defending Freedom.
“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reinterpreted non-discrimination on the basis of sex in the Affordable Care Act to include gender identity and thus require gender transition interventions, services, surgeries, and drugs on demand, even for children, no matter a doctor’s medical judgment, religious beliefs, or conscientious objection,” ADF claimed.
The suit, American College of Pediatricians v. Becerra, was filed Thursday with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Chattanooga. ADF is providing representation on behalf of more than 3,000 physicians and health care professionals.
In a statement, ADF Senior Counsel Ryan Bangert slammed the Biden administration for “grossly overreaching its authority” and called the mandate flatly “unlawful.”
“The law and the medical profession have long recognized and respected the biological differences between boys and girls and the unique needs they each present in health care. Forcing doctors to prescribe transition hormones for 13-year-olds or perform life-altering surgeries on adolescents is unlawful, unethical, and dangerous,” Bangert said. “President Biden’s Health and Human Services department is grossly overreaching its authority and, in so doing, putting children’s psychological and physical health in danger. Our clients are rightfully objecting on medical, ethical, religious, and conscientious grounds to this unlawful government mandate to provide gender-transition procedures.”
ADF Senior Counsel Julie Marie Blake blasted the mandate as “an extreme violation of doctors’ constitutional rights,” which arguably hurts patients.
“Doctors should never be forced to perform a controversial and often medically dangerous procedure that goes against their best judgment, their conscience, or their religion, especially when it involves vulnerable children experiencing mental and emotional confusion,” Blake’s statement said. “To force doctors to engage in experimental medicine that poses a risk to patients—or face huge financial penalties, withdrawal of federal funding, or removal of their ability to practice medicine—is an extreme violation of doctors’ constitutional rights and certainly not in the best interest of the patients they serve.”
Immediately after being sworn into office, Biden signed an Executive Order broadening sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
“Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports,” the EO stated. “Adults should be able to earn a living and pursue a vocation knowing that they will not be fired, demoted, or mistreated because of whom they go home to or because how they dress does not conform to sex-based stereotypes. People should be able to access healthcare and secure a roof over their heads without being subjected to sex discrimination.”
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Source: Dailywire
