Doctors may be forced to perform transgender surgeries under new Biden policy

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Following the Biden administration’s reversal of a Trump-era health policy on Monday, doctors may now be forced to perform transgender medical procedures, including surgery, against their professional opinion, conscience, and faith, Christian Headlines reports.

The Biden administration’s policy reversal centers on Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) that prohibits discrimination on the basis of “sex” within health care. Under Trump, “sex” was interpreted to mean “male or female and as determined by biology.” But on Monday the Department of Health and Human Services said this term will now include transgenderism and sexual orientation, Christian Headlines reports.

“It is the position of the Department of Health and Human Services that everyone – including LGBTQ people – should be able to access health care, free from discrimination or interference, period,” Xavier Becerra, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement.

The policy has given rise to grave concern among religious freedom advocates, who say doctors could be punished if they refuse to perform transgender procedures. “This is bad for patients, doctors, and religious liberty,” attorney Luke Goodrich of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty said in a tweet. Goodrich further noted that although the Biden administration said Monday that it will “comply with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act” and “all applicable court orders,” last month the government appealed a judge’s ruling that doctors cannot be forced to carry out gender transition procedures.

In a statement about Monday’s announcement, Brian Burch, president of Catholic Vote said: “The HHS decision this morning turns back the clock on medical sanity. This new HHS mandate is a transparent effort to substitute doctors’ medical judgment in the highly experimental and politicized field of gender medicine. Contrary to the misleading HHS announcement, no American is being denied care for broken arms or standard medical procedures based on their gender ‘identity’ or sexual orientation. This move by HHS is a setup to normalize and strong-arm doctors into administering puberty-blocking drugs on children, performing sex-change surgeries, and more.”

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