The Biden administration failed to appeal a ruling from Jeffrey Barrows, DO, MA (Ethics) - an OBGYN - that stated no one should be forced to violate their conscience or religious beliefs when it comes to providing healthcare.
ADF Legal Counsel Jacob Reed also noted that employers in the Christian Employers Alliance have the constitutional right to conduct their business in line with their religious beliefs. The lawsuit filed by ADF and explained a misinterpretation of discrimination based sex in Title VII, sought to protect religious employers from being forced to provide health insurance coverage for gender transition procedures or surgeries.
Additionally, the mandate required healthcare providers to both speak positively about these procedures despite disagreeing with them and barred them from sharing their medical opinions or objections. If the CEA members did not comply, they faced loss of federal funds, expensive litigation, fines criminal penalties, and attorneys’ fees and costs.
Senior counsel Matt Bowman argued that all doctors and nurses should have the protection to “live and work in a manner consistent with their faith”. He urged the Biden administration to withdraw this harmful proposal, stressing that it is an “illegal and gross overreach of executive power”. With the failure to appeal the ruling, the mandate is now blocked by the appellate court.
“Doctors, nurses, and other medical providers should enjoy this same constitutional protection, free to live and work in a manner consistent with their faith,” Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Matt Bowman said in a statement. “Yet the Biden administration’s proposed rule would abandon health care professionals to being forced to perform medical procedures that directly violate their religious beliefs or risk losing their jobs.”
“This is an illegal and gross overreach of executive power, and we urge the administration to withdraw this harmful proposal immediately,” Bowman said.
The Biden administration had until November 25th to appeal the ruling and failed to do so — meaning the mandate is now blocked by the appellate court.
