A federal district court judge on Wednesday temporarily halted parts of a nondiscrimination rule that would have kept insurers and medical professionals from denying hormone therapy,U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. sided with 15 states that had argued the language the rule was based on — the 1972nondiscrimination law — encompasses biological sex, but not gender identity. Guirola's injunction applies nationwide to the Affordable Care Act rule, which would have gone into effect Friday.
But the Republican attorneys general in Tennessee and the other states — mostly in the South and Midwest — argued the states would face financial burdens if they followed the new rule under Medicaid or other federal health programs or lose federal funding if they didn't follow the rule. The plaintiffs also argued the rule was based on the federal agency's “commitment to gender ideology over medical reality.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said that the Biden administration "attempted to undermine Title IX by dramatically reinterpreting its meaning to now apply to gender identity.”