Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced a multi-state lawsuit today, challenging a new rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The rule redefines the Affordable Care Act’s prohibition against discrimination on the basis of "sex" to include "gender identity." Under threat of severe penalties, it would require medical providers to perform surgeries and administer hormone drugs for gender transition to both children and adults, irrespective of a doctor's medical judgment on the appropriateness of such treatments.
The rule also mandates that medical providers allow patients into sex-segregated spaces based on their gender identity rather than biological sex. Additionally, healthcare workers would be required to use gender-affirming pronouns, with penalties for using biologically accurate pronouns.
In 2016, a similar policy was introduced by the Obama Administration but was struck down by federal courts as unlawful. The states involved in this current lawsuit anticipate a similar outcome.
“By filing this lawsuit today, we’re sending a simple message: the Biden Administration has no legal authority to impose this radical ideological agenda on American healthcare,” said Attorney General Skrmetti. “While countries across Europe are banning or drastically limiting irreversible transition treatments for kids after careful review of the medical evidence, the Biden Administration wants to illegally force every health care provider in America to adopt the most extreme version of gender ideology. Neither the United States Constitution, nor Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, nor our long-established system for state regulation of the practice of medicine allow this. In America, the people’s elected representatives make the laws, and any effort by a federal agency to usurp that power is an assault on our constitutional order.”
The Biden Administration's rule could significantly impact Tennessee and other states that restrict gender-transition interventions for minors and decline to use public funds for these procedures. Non-compliant entities risk losing substantial federal funding, including billions in state Medicaid funding intended for low-income individuals, and face civil liability through private lawsuits.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. Joining Tennessee and Mississippi are Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, and West Virginia.