'Do no harm': Pediatricians fight in court as Biden HHS tries to force them into transgender procedures
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit will hear oral arguments Wednesday in a case challenging a Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate that would force doctors to violate their sound medical judgment and/or religious beliefs.
HHS is acting under an executive order signed by President Joe Biden for his administration in January 2021 to redefine “sex” in federal law to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”
That means the Biden administration has reinterpreted gender nondiscrimination in the Affordable Care Act to include gender identity. This radical reimagining would require physicians to prescribe or perform transgender interventions on patients, including children.
Attorneys for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), representing 3,000 physicians and medical professionals from the American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds), Catholic Medical Associates and a gynecologist specializing in the care of adolescents, appealed to the 6th Circuit after a lower court dismissed theirs lawsuit.
In the lawsuit American College of Pediatricians v. BecerraThe doctors are questioning the HHS rule that requires doctors to perform controversial, life-changing procedures and surgeries on people who want to change their bodies to match their new gender identity, including children, even if it goes against the doctor's medical judgment or religious ones violates beliefs. or for reasons of conscience.
“Doctors should never be forced to perform a controversial and medically dangerous procedure that violates their best judgment, conscience or religion, particularly when it involves vulnerable children,” ADF senior counsel Chris Schamvel said in a statement .
“President Biden’s Health and Human Services Department is significantly exceeding its authority, endangering the mental and physical health of children. Our clients rightly object to this unlawful government mandate on medical, ethical, religious and conscientious grounds,” he added.
As a plaintiff in American College of Pediatricians v. Becerraexplains the college: “ACPeds is committed to protecting children from the known harms of transgender interventions and defending the right of physicians to use ethical medical judgment to help, not harm, their patients. As pediatricians, we strive to provide the highest level of care for our patients and uphold our oath not to harm them.”
In an editorial published Tuesday by The National Review, ADF vice president of public affairs Lathan Watts noted, “Doctors across the country are now in the untenable position of choosing between fidelity to conscience and fealty to the ideology of federal bureaucrats.” “
“The choice is not only impossible for these doctors, but also unconstitutional for every citizen of this republic. The Religious Freedom and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment were written to protect one's God-given right to live and speak accordingly.” “To protect one's beliefs and prevent state-compelled speech or behavior,” Watts continued.
“In American College of Pediatricians v. Becerra, we are witnessing another conflict between an unconstitutional attempt to rewrite federal law and the undeniable protections of our Constitution. While we await the Sixth Circuit's decision, it remains to be seen what will happen.” “Left standing,” he concluded.
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Source: www2.cbn.com