A federal district court rejected the Biden administration's reinterpretation of the word "sex" to include "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" in federal statutes.
In Neese v. Becerra, two Texas-based physicians are challenging the administration's mandate in Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act that forces health care professionals to perform medical procedures that seek to alter a patient's biological sex even if the procedure violates the doctor's medical judgment or religious beliefs. That mandate depends on Title IX, a federal statute that the administration is also attempting to interpret to require women to compete against men on women's sports teams.
In its ruling Friday, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Amarillo Division, determined that "because Title IX does not protect 'sexual orientation' or 'gender identity' status, neither does Section 1557." Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief in August arguing for the court to protect female athletes by striking down the administration's rewriting of federal law, which the court did in its ruling.
