Federal court stops Joe Biden mandate that forced religious companies to pay for transgender surgery

President Joe Biden’s mandates requiring both healthcare providers and religious employers to provide transgender surgeries, counseling, and procedures against their religious beliefs are temporarily being blocked by a federal court.

In a recent court order, district Judge Daniel M. Traynor granted the Christian Employers Alliance’s (CEA) request for a preliminary injunction. enjoining the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Department of Health and Human Services from from interpreting or enforcing the law against the CEA “in a manner that would require its present or future members to provide insurance coverage for gender transition services.”

“No government agency ought to be in the business of evaluating the sincerity of another’s religious beliefs,” said the court order, as reported.

“HHS Guidance encourages a parent to file a complaint if a medical provider refuses to gender transition their child, of any age, including an infant. The thought that a newborn child could be surgically altered to change gender is the result of the Biden HHS Notification and HHS Guidance that brands a medical professional’s refusal to do so as discrimination,” the court order continued.

“Indeed, the HHS Guidance specifically invites the public to file complaints for acting in a manner the Alliance says is consistent with their sincerely held religious beliefs. The Alliance must either violate its sincerely held beliefs or face monetary losses, fines, and even civil liabilities. The Plaintiffs and their members face a very real irreparable harm if they are either forced to comply or if they refuse to comply,” added the court order.

ADF Legal Counsel Jacob Reed said in a statement that “all employers and healthcare providers, including those in the Christian Employers Alliance, have the constitutional right to conduct their business and render treatment in a manner consistent with their deeply held religious beliefs.”

“The employers we represent believe that God purposefully created humans as either male or female, and so it would violate their religious beliefs to pay for or perform life-altering medical procedures or surgeries that seek to change one’s biological sex. The court was on firm ground to halt enforcement of these unlawful mandates that disrespect people of faith,” added Reed, who had argued on behalf of CEA before the court.

ADF said in a press release that ADF’s lawsuit accuses the EEOC of misinterpreting the law in forcing religious employers to both provide health insurance coverage and pay for transgender sex change surgeries and procedures.