Texas Sues to Stop Obamacare’s Forcing of Sex Change & Abortion Procedures

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to stop a dangerous new Obamacare mandate that forces doctors, nurses, hospitals, and insurance companies to perform sex reassignment surgeries and abortions. The Obama Administration has attempted to redefine the word “sex” in Obamacare to include “sexual orientation,” “gender identity,” and “termination of pregnancy” as a new protected classes. Under the new mandate, healthcare providers will be forced to participate in sex transitions and abortions, procedures that violate many healthcare providers’ conscience rights and religious beliefs. Earlier this week, the Obama Administration was ordered by a federal judge to stop its attempt to enforce an illegal application of the term “sex” by applying it to the terms “gender identity.”

The newest Texas lawsuit includes healthcare providers, the State of Wisconsin, State of Nebraska, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and the State of Kansas. The lawsuit states in part:

This lawsuit challenges a new Regulation (“Regulation” or “Rule”) issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) that seeks to override the medical judgment of healthcare professionals across the country. On pain of significant financial liability, the Regulation forces doctors to perform controversial and sometimes harmful medical procedures ostensibly designed to permanently change an individual’s sex—including the sex of children. Under the new Regulation, a doctor must perform these procedures even when they are contrary to the doctor’s medical judgment and could result in significant, long-term medical harm. Thus, the Regulation represents a radical invasion of the federal bureaucracy into a doctor’s medical judgment…

The Rule also defines “sex” to include discrimination based upon “termination of pregnancy” in covered programs. HHS declined to add an explicit carve-out for abortion and abortion-related services parallel to the carve-out included in Title IX; it merely noted the existence of conscience protections in federal law and ACA limitations on requirement for abortion coverage…. This conflict with religious or otherwise conscientious employers extends beyond treatment surrounding gender dysphoria, because some required procedures (such as elective hysterectomies) result in sterilization, and the new Rule also extends to “termination of pregnancy”… Although HHS states that laws protecting religious objections to abortion (or “termination of pregnancy”) will apply, HHS recently approved California forcing all insurers to include abortion coverage, even for objecting religious institutions. And HHS could have included, but explicitly chose to exclude, a clear regulatory carve-out for services related to abortion that parallels the carve-out in Title IX.

Jonathan Saenz, President and Attorney of Texas Values stated:

“When will this drastic and illegal federal overreach and attack on freedom of conscious end? This mandate forces healthcare providers to violate their conscience by destroying the bodies of Texans, even children, and ending the lives of the unborn – all for the sake of a political agenda and at the expense of taxpayers. This is outrageous and deplorable. Texans know that Obamacare was a terrible idea to begin with and this new mandate is another example of the Obama Administration’s lack of human dignity and common sense. We applaud our Texas leadership for protecting our Texas healthcare providers and the lives and livelihood of all Texans.”

About Texas Values
Texas Values is a nonprofit organization dedicated to standing for faith, family, and freedom in Texas. More information is available at txvalues.org.

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