Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch led a coalition of 13 other states in filing a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) final rule, which redefines the Affordable Care Act’s prohibition against discrimination based on “sex” to include “gender identity.”
As of May 6, HHS’ final rule requires medical providers to perform surgeries and administer hormone drugs to both children and adults for the purpose of gender transition, without regard for a doctor’s medical judgment as to whether that treatment was appropriate.
"The Administration has no legal authority to impose this radical ideological agenda on American healthcare," said AG Skrmetti.
Tennessee will continue to defend the Constitution and fight against unlawful federal overreach.
➡️https://t.co/UIdmo2pwau pic.twitter.com/3qtPj2uT26
— TN Attorney General (@AGTennessee) May 30, 2024
The rule also requires medical providers to allow patients into sex-segregated spaces, such as parts of a hospital reserved only for women patients, based on their gender identity rather than their biological sex.
In addition, the rule requires every health care worker to use gender-affirming pronouns and punishes providers for using biologically accurate pronouns.
The rule accomplishes the new requirements by interpreting Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act cross-referenced to Title IX to “prohibit gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination by covered health programs.”
Skrmetti, noting how a similar rule attempted to be implemented during the Obama administration before being struck down by federal courts, said the new HHS rule “could have significant impacts on Tennessee” as covered entities found non-compliant with the 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—and exposure to civil liability through private lawsuits.”
“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,” Skrmetti said in a statement.
“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,” Skrmetti added.
Thursday’s lawsuit comes weeks after Skrmetti led a coalition of 17 other states in filing a lawsuit challenging the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) final guidance on harassment in the workplace, which broadens Title VII’s prohibition of “sex-based harassment” to include, among other things, “misgendering” and the enforcement of “sex-segregated” facilities, including restrooms.
Two weeks before that, Skrmetti filed another lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s Department of Education over its finalized rule to rewrite Title IX to encompass gender identity and sexual orientation.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
