Judge temporarily blocks Biden administration’s restoration of transgender health protections

FILE – Surgeons perform a bilateral mastectomy on a transgender patient at a Boston hospital, Friday, July 15, 2016. A U.S. federal district court judge on Wednesday, July 3, 2024, temporarily halted parts of a nondiscrimination rule that would have prevented insurers and medical providers from denying hormone therapy, gender reassignment surgery and similar medical care to transgender people. (Christine Hochkeppel/Worcester Telegram & Gazette via AP, File)

By DEVNA BOSE

Press Association

JACKSON, Miss. — A federal district court judge on Wednesday temporarily put on hold parts of an antidiscrimination law that would stop insurers and medical providers from denying hormone therapy, gender reassignment surgery and similar medical care to transgender people.

U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. sided with 15 states that argued the language on which the provision — the 1972 Title IX nondiscrimination act — is based includes biological sex but not gender identity. Guirola’s order applies nationwide to a provision of the Affordable Care Act that would have taken effect Friday.

It’s another blow to the Biden administration’s efforts to expand anti-discrimination protections. In the past few weeks, three federal judges have blocked a rule in several states that would have protected LGBTQ+ students by expanding the definition of sexual harassment in schools and colleges under Title IX.

Health care protections based on gender identity were added under the Obama administration and removed under former President Donald Trump. Earlier this year, the Department of Health and Human Services again expanded the Affordable Care Act to include discrimination based on gender identity. “gender stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics.”

But Republican attorneys general in Tennessee and other states — mostly in the South and Midwest — have argued that states would face financial burdens if they comply with the new rule under Medicaid or other federal health programs, or lose federal funds if they don’t. The plaintiffs also argued that the rule relies on a federal agency’s decision “commitment to gender ideology over medical reality.”

During testimony, Mississippi Division of Medicaid attorney Cody Smith testified that the agency cannot cover gender reassignment procedures for children under 18, which is rare and the state’s Medicaid program and Children’s Health Insurance Program do not cover “surgical procedures intended to treat mental disorders.”

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said the Biden administration “attempted to undermine Title IX by drastically reinterpreting its meaning to now refer to gender identity.”

“I am grateful that the judge decided to side with Mississippi and other states that have chosen to stand up for women and defend Title IX in its current form.” he added.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Office for Civil Rights and the attorneys general of Tennessee and Mississippi did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s office said it would not comment on pending litigation.

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