CV NEWS FEED // Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) lawyers representing the Catholic Medical Association (CMA) argued in a legal hearing this month against the Biden Administration’s attempts to force health care professionals to provide “transgender” surgeries for children.
A hearing for the case, State of Florida v. Department of Health and Human Services, took place on June 21.
Republican Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is spearheading the lawsuit, which was filed in May. The plaintiffs suing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are the CMA, the state of Florida, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, and the Florida Department of Management Services.
According to a June 20 news release from ADF, the plaintiffs are challenging the HHS’ attempt to redefine “sex” to include “gender identity” in a federal health care nondiscrimination law, a redefinition that requires doctors to perform transgender surgeries on minors.
“The rule change forces CMA members to lose federal funding and risk severe penalties for treating and referring to patients by their sex,” the news release noted. “The rule also requires Florida to follow unscientific standards of care and limits the state’s power to set protective standards of care for health professionals.”
ADF Legal Counsel Allison Pope stated in the news release that the HHS rule “will harm those suffering from gender dysphoria, especially children, and punish doctors who seek to care for them.”
She highlighted that medical professionals and people who have had “transgender” surgeries have warned about the risks involved in these experimental surgical alterations.
“Yet the administration is choosing ideology over science by coercing doctors to perform these dangerous, often sterilizing procedures to make people appear as the opposite sex,” Pope said.
The plaintiffs are requesting a preliminary and permanent injunction to protect the medical professionals and institutions in the lawsuit from the rule change.
