Politics

Federal Judge Strikes Down A Key Part Of President Biden’s Transgender Agenda

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Sarah Wilder Social Issues Reporter
Font Size:

A federal judge has reversed a Biden Administration rule that directed the Department of Health and Human Services to increase access to sex change surgeries and hormone therapies, including to children, in a Friday ruling.

Biden’s HHS said in May 2021 that it would interpret a section of the Affordable Care Act, which bars doctors from discriminating on the basis of sex, as covering sexual orientation and gender identity. Two doctors represented by the America First Legal Foundation brought a class action lawsuit against the Biden administration after the HHS took the action, arguing that the rule would interfere with their ability to properly practice medicine.

The judge argued that the Biden administration’s interpretation of Title IX to include “gender identity,” was faulty and could not be changed until Congress passed a law to that effect, or the Supreme Court ruled otherwise. (RELATED: California Passes Amendment By Massive Margins To Enshrine A ‘Right To Abortion’ In The State’s Constitution)

“As noted above, the ordinary public meaning of ‘sex’ turned on reproductive function when Congress enacted Title IX,” Judge Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, wrote. “For an action to occur ‘on the basis of sex,’ biological sex must be the motivating factor.”

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 25: U.S. President Joe Biden (L) and Ashton Mota participate in event commemorating LGBTQ+ Pride Month at the White House on June 25, 2021 in Washington, DC. Sixteen years old and transgender, Mota is a Human Rights Campaign youth ambassador from Lowell, Massachusetts. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 25: U.S. President Joe Biden (L) and Ashton Mota participate in event commemorating LGBTQ+ Pride Month at the White House on June 25, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The judge also added that by extending sex protections to individuals who identified with a sex other than their biological sex, the purpose of Title IX was compromised.

“Defendants’ reinterpretation of Title IX through the Notification imperils the very opportunities for women Title IX was designed to promote and protect — categorically forcing biological women to compete against biological men.”

Several states have moved to ban sex change procedures for minors. Florida’s Board of Medicine has voted to ban sex change surgeries and hormones for children under 18. Tennessee lawmakers introduced a bill to ban the procedures Wednesday.