Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
A federal court blocked an Obama administration rule that was to go into effect on January 1.
Under the rule, doctors and health care providers receiving federal funds would be required to perform “sex change” operations and kill unborn babies, even if such procedures violated their conscience.
People of faith are hoping this is one of many changes to come under a Trump administration.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sought to expand Obamacare’s so-called anti-sex discrimination language to include “gender identity” and abortion, essentially equating sexual confusion and killing the unborn with race and sex.
HHS claimed the new rule merely clarified and codified Title IX (Education). WORLD reported that Judge Reed O’Connor, a U.S. district judge in Texas, rejected that interpretation.
In issuing a preliminary injunction against the rule, he wrote that the “meaning of sex in Title IX unambiguously refers to ‘the biological and anatomical differences between male and female students as determined at their birth.'” The judge ruled that the Obama administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. An excerpt from WORLD:
White House spokeswoman Katie Hill called the decision on Saturday a “setback, but hopefully a temporary one,” according to Reuters.
But Christian groups battling in the mandate in court saw the injunction as a victory.
Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, and Wisconsin have sued HHS along with Texas.
Another lawsuit, filed in late December by the Catholic Benefits Association, challenges not only the Affordable Care Act’s interpretation of Title IX but also Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The group hopes to halt the redefining of “sex” in both places to retain protections for Christian healthcare workers and Christian employers outside the medical field.
