The Biden administration has shown itself every bit as hostile to religious objections to leftist policies as the guy whose de facto third term he has been overseeing.

There is a difference, though. Old Barack only sued those nuns to PAY for coverage of medical services their religious views forbade.

Joe’s administration went further. His HHS was pushing doctors to perform medical services that violated their conscience — not to mention their Hippocratic Oath. It fit with a recurring theme in his aggressive embrace of the Hard Left Authoritarian model on topics ranging from vaccines, to race, to gender, to abortion. Sincerely held religious objections are ignored as he pushes his woke agenda.

Joe ran on revoking the Hyde Amendment. He rejected religious exemptions to vax mandates in the military. And most importantly to this story, he went all in on the left’s new gender agenda.

The Question Before The Courts

Like the nuns case, this problem started with a provision of Obamacare.

Doctors were obligated to provide what’s been euphemistically called ‘gender-affirming care’ by supporters. Critics have been more blunt in describing it as the mutilating of bodies to sterilize and remove healthy tissue and organs. We’re talking about the removal of healthy breast tissue. And castration. And hysterectomy.

Doctors were legally obligated to provide ‘care’ even when they believed that said ‘care’ would be causeing actual bodily harm to their patients.

This stemmed from a novel interpretation of ‘discrimination’.

In May 2016, HHS issued a rule interpreting Section 1557’s prohibition of “discrimination on the basis of sex.” It defined sex discrimination to include discrimination on the basis of “termination of pregnancy” and the disputed concept of “gender identity.”— DrRichswier

In other words…

Six years ago, the federal government issued the mandate as part of the Affordable Care Act and tried to apply it to virtually every doctor nationwide. The requirement would have forced doctors to perform these procedures on any patient, including on children, even if the procedures went against their conscience and professional medical judgment. A group of religious organizations and nine states quickly sued and received protection from federal courts in North Dakota and in Texas. Today’s ruling is another successful step in this fight to protect doctors’ conscience rights. –BecketLaw

As you will see from another quote further down, this includes requiring doctors to perform abortions, despite their personal and moral objections.

The Legal Case

In Franciscan Alliance v Becerra, a group comprised of more than 18,000 healthcare professionals brought suit, claiming that neither their professional medical judgment nor their deeply held beliefs could not be overridden by a government directive.

Biden’s administration and the ACLU were actively on the other side, pressing to require this of them.

Becket says on its website that the Biden administration and the ACLU were “dissatisfied with not being able to force religious health care providers to violate their faith” and appealed the decision back to the Fifth Circuit.
The Biden administration has been accused of weaponizing Title IX to push “woke insanity” on Americans. — DrRichswier

The Ruling

It’s unanimous.

In the unanimous ruling, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the lower court’s order “permanently enjoining [HHS] from requiring Franciscan Alliance to perform gender-reassignment surgeries or abortions in violation of its sincerely held religious beliefs.” The court explained that while the government argued it should get more chances to show why it needed religious healthcare providers to participate in gender-transition procedures, other cases showed that permanent protection was appropriate—including, ironically, cases brought by the ACLU, who had intervened in Franciscan to support the government. –BecketLaw

What Next?

Friend of the website, Doctor Hotze shared his thoughts on the topic.

Finally, there is sanity in the Federal Courts. I am sure that this decision will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. -Steven Hotze, M.D.

With the current composition of the court in SCOTUS, one suspects that, should it be successfully appealed, our Constitutional religious freedoms would continue to be respected.

Cross-posted with Clash Daily

Related:

• Evil: Biden’s New Title IX Rule Requires Teachers to Ignore Parents on Transgenderism
• Biden’s Education Department Seeks To End Due Process Under Title IX For College Students
• Maryland School District Requires Employees to Keep Parents in the Dark about Kids Turning Transgender
• SICK: Biden’s Transgender Assistant Secretary of Health Dr. Levine Says We Need To “Empower” Children To Go On Puberty Blockers (Video)
• Psaki Threatens States, Lawmakers Protecting Children From Transgender Nightmare (Video)
• Dem Rep. Jayapal: Government MUST regulate behavior of ALL Americans to protect transgender freedom

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