Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is challenging a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rule as part of a new lawsuit that seeks to force medical providers to perform surgeries and administer hormones to both children and adults for the purpose of gender transition.
“The Biden administration will stop at nothing to impose its radical transgender ideology on Hoosiers and all Americans,” Attorney General Rokita said. “These HHS bureaucrats are illegally weaponizing the U.S. healthcare system in this misguided quest. With our lawsuit, we aim to protect common sense, science and the rule of law — not to mention the physical and mental health of people experiencing gender dysphoria.”
The rule redefines the Affordable Care Act’s prohibition against discrimination on the basis of “sex” to include “gender identity.” The rule deems doctors guilty of discrimination for hewing to the scientifically grounded reality that males and females have different anatomies and physiologies that require different kinds of care.
In 2016, federal courts struck down as unlawful a similar rule sought by the Obama administration.
The Biden administration’s rule could cause significant damage to Indiana and the 14 other states that signed on to the lawsuit – places where medical providers have restrictions against performing gender-transition interventions on minors.
Covered entities found non-compliant with this new HHS rule risk the loss of significant federal funding — including the loss of billions of dollars in state Medicaid funding designed to assist low-income individuals. They also risk exposure to civil liability through private lawsuits.