A federal district court judge has temporarily suspended parts of a nondiscrimination rule that would have prevented insurers and health care providers from denying hormone therapy, gender transition surgeries and similar medical care to transgender people.
JACKSON, Miss. — A federal district court judge on Wednesday temporarily suspended parts of a nondiscrimination rule that would have prevented insurers and health care providers from denying hormone therapy, gender transition surgeries and similar medical care to transgender people.
U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. sided with 15 states that had argued that the text on which the rule was based — the 1972 Title IX nondiscrimination law — covered biological sex, but not gender identity. Guirola’s injunction applies nationwide to the Affordable Care Act rule, which would have gone into effect Friday.
It’s another blow to the Biden administration’s efforts to expand anti-discrimination protections. In recent weeks, three federal judges have blocked a rule in several states that would protect LGBTQ+ students by expanding the definition of sexual harassment in schools and universities under Title IX.
Health care protections based on gender identity were added under the Obama administration and removed under former President Donald Trump. Earlier this year, the Department of Health and Human Services again expanded the scope of the Affordable Care Act to include discrimination based on “sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.”
But Republican attorneys general from Tennessee and other states — mostly in the South and Midwest — argued that states would face financial hardship if they followed the new rule under Medicaid or other federal health programs or would lose federal funds if they did not. The plaintiffs also argued that the rule was based on the federal agency’s “commitment to gender ideology rather than medical reality.”
In his testimony, Cody Smith, an attorney for the Mississippi Division of Medicaid, said the agency is not authorized to cover gender transition procedures for children under 18 — which are rare — and that the state’s Medicaid program and Children’s Health Insurance Program do not cover “surgical procedures to treat a mental health condition.”
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said the Biden administration “has attempted to undermine Title IX by radically reinterpreting its meaning to now apply to gender identity.”
“I am grateful that this judge has chosen to side with Mississippi and other states that have chosen to stand up for women and stand up for Title IX as it currently exists,” he added.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Office for Civil Rights and the attorneys general of Tennessee and Mississippi did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s office said it would not comment on pending litigation.
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