Biden admin imposes gender ideology on faith-based healthcare system in new HHS rule: 'Shameless targeting'

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a rule Friday that redefines "sex" in federal healthcare nondiscrimination law to include "gender identity," causing critics to cry foul that faith-based health care is being targeted.

Foes of the move believe it's a direct attack on faith-based healthcare systems because, by expanding the definition of "sex" to include gender identity, religious medical systems and providers opposed to "transgender-affirming care" surgeries will no longer be able to opt out without facing funding consequences. 

Chris Faddis, president of Christian healthcare group Solidarity HealthShare, described the new rule as an "attack on people of faith and is blatant discrimination against religious Americans who object to participating in or paying for products and procedures that violate their beliefs."

"By expanding the definition of 'sex' to include 'gender identity,' physicians and medical staff can no longer opt out of performing morally objectionable procedures, like transgender surgeries, without the risk of losing critical federal funding," he told Fox News Digital. "This shameless targeting of faith-based healthcare systems and providers is unacceptable, but sadly not unexpected given this administration's track record of hostility towards people of faith."

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The Biden administration's Department of HHS, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the final rule under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to advance "protections against discrimination in health care," according to a press release announcing the move.  

"We clarify that a Nondiscrimination Policy’s prohibition of sex discrimination encompasses protections afforded for various types of sex discrimination such as pregnancy, including termination of pregnancy or related conditions, and we have revised the parenthetical in § 92.8(b) to explain that this provision’s reference to sex discrimination is consistent with the various types of sex discrimination described at § 92.101(a)(2), which includes ‘gender identity,’" the rule states. 

OCR Director Melanie Fontes Rainer said in the press release that Section 1557 is "critical to making sure that people in all communities have a right to access health care free from discrimination" and "exemplifies the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing commitment to health equity and patient rights."

The press release states the new rule "Protects against discrimination by codifying that Section 1557’s prohibition against discrimination based on sex includes LGTBQI+ patients."

"Traveling across the country, I have heard too many stories of people facing discrimination in their health care," she said. "The robust protections of 1557 are needed now more than ever. Whether it’s standing up for LGBTQI+ Americans nationwide, making sure that care is more accessible for people with disabilities or immigrant communities, or protecting patients when using AI in health care, OCR protects Americans’ rights."

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Luke Goodrich, vice president and senior counsel at Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, told Fox News Digital that federal courts already struck down the same mandate twice during the Obama administration and said he expects the move by the Biden administration to meet the same fate.  

The rule states: "In providing access to health programs and activities, a covered entity must not: (1) Deny or limit health services, including those that have been typically or exclusively provided to, or associated with, individuals of one sex, to an individual based upon the individual’s sex assigned at birth, gender identity, or gender otherwise recorded."

"The rule says doctors must perform gender transitions, including on kids, or be guilty of ‘sex’ discrimination," he posted to X. "So doctors who offer hormones for menopause, or mastectomies for breast cancer, must do the same for girls who want to look like boys."

"Forcing doctors to perform gender transitions against their conscience and medical judgment is bad for patients, bad for doctors, and unlawful," he told Fox News Digital. 

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Julie Marie Blake, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom echoed Goodrich's sentiment, stating in an ADF press release that the rule harms families and children by promoting dangerous, "life-altering ‘gender-transition’ procedures that remove healthy body parts or block puberty."

She told Fox News Digital that these "radical changes will completely upend the practice of medicine, drastically altering the United States’ medical system for the worst." 

"Congress never gave the Biden administration any power to redefine sex to include gender identity or to promote risky, life-altering procedures that block puberty or remove healthy body parts," she said. "Alliance Defending Freedom stands against this gross abuse of power."

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Fox News Digital has reached out to the HHS for comment.