Plaintiffs in the lawsuit, including Missouri, Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Idaho, and Arkansas, argue that the rule violates the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, by requiring doctors to act against their sound medical judgment for patients with gender dysphoria.
HHS issued the rule change using the logic of the 2020 Supreme Court decision Bostock v. Clayton County, in which the court held that prohibitions against sex discrimination could also be interpreted to protect against gender identity and sexual orientation bias.
Julie Marie Blake, the senior counsel on the case from the conservative advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom, called the rule an “attempt to hijack medicine.”
“Medical professionals around the world and individuals who have undergone these experimental, body-altering procedures are warning about their risks,” Blake said. “Yet the Biden administration is working to force doctors to perform these harmful, often sterilizing procedures to make people appear as the opposite sex.”
