The Texas Attorney General has filed another lawsuit to fight against the Obama Administration’s transgender agenda. This time the court fight relates to Obamacare and new rules by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) interpreting “sex” as it relates to gender.
The states of Nebraska, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Kansas, and the Governor of Kentucky, Governor Matthew G. Bevin, have joined in the suit.
DHHS recently announced a new rule implementing an interpretation of the definition of “sex” within the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), information obtained from the Texas Attorney General’s Office by Breitbart Texas disclosed.
The Attorney General is of the opinion that the new rule amounts to regulatory overreach and could violate the medical judgment and conscience rights of doctors and other health care professionals.
The new interpretation could also increase the cost of healthcare to Texas taxpayers. It would also require Texas taxpayers to fund all treatments designed to transition to another sex.
The new DHHS “gender fluid” rule defines “sex” as a state of mind, and not as a biological fact. The rule from the Obama Administration provides that a person’s “internal sense of gender which may be male, female, neither, or a combination of male and female.”
A statement from the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says this is not a regulatory change but is actually an unconstitutional re-writing of the law. “[T]he President does not have the power to rewrite law.” As written by Congress, the term “sex” is defined as a biological category.
“This is the thirteenth lawsuit I have been forced to bring against the Obama Administration’s continued threats on constitutional rights of Texans,” Attorney General Paxton stated. “The federal government has no right to force Texans to pay for medical procedures designed to change a person’s sex.”
Paxton said the impact of the new rule is significant to Texas health care providers in that it forces health care workers, including doctors, to provide controversial services, even if those services are not in the best interest of the patient. It could also force physicians and other professionals to carry out medical procedures that violate their own religious beliefs.
The new rule mandates compliance by a health care professional, it does not allow the health care worker to refer the patient to another provider who might be willing to perform the services, the Texas Attorney General stated.
“I am disappointed in the Obama Administration’s lack of consideration for medical professionals who believe that engaging in such procedures or treatment violates their Hippocratic Oath, their conscience, or their personal religious beliefs, which are protected by the Constitution and federal law,” Paxton said.
This agenda and ideology of leftists is gradually revealing its intolerant determination to prevent Americans from using their evolved and popular cultural, legal and social distinctions between the two sexes. As reported by Breitbart News’ Dr. Susan Berry on August 22, “West Virginia University (WVU) has told its 29,000 students that they are breaking federal law if don’t agree to use the pronouns — including ‘he’ or ‘she,’ ‘zir’ or ‘hir’ etc. — preferred by each person who claims to be transgender.” The policy means for example, if a biological man, like transgender athlete Bruce Jenner says he “identifies” his gender as female, then all other students must refer to the man as a “she,” or else be treated as a law-breaker, she reported. The move by leftists and the Obama Administration is based on their newly-created interpretation that transgender persons are protected by existing sexual discrimination law.
The day before this lawsuit was filed, Breitbart Texas reported that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton obtained an order from a federal court blocking the Obama Administration’s mandate requiring public schools to allow transgender or gender fluid students to use the bathroom of their choice. The ruling was issued just before and as of the time many schools were opening for the fall.
Lana Shadwick is a contributing writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. She has served as a prosecutor and associate judge in Texas. Follow her on Twitter @LanaShadwick2.
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