Court Strikes Down HHS Gender Surgery and Abortion Mandate

NEW ORLEANS, LA – The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously struck down a Biden administration mandate on Friday that forced doctors and medical facilities to provide “gender-transition” procedures and abortions against their religious beliefs and health insurers to cover them. In Franciscan Alliance, Inc. et al. v. Xavier Becerra, the three-judge panel upheld a lower court’s permanent injunction against the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) mandate which protected Christian Medical and Dental Associations and Specialty Physicians of Illinois, along with Franciscan Alliance, a Catholic hospital system. Now the HHS cannot take action against them under the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) anti-discrimination provision, known as Section 1557, for refusing to perform the procedures which violate their religious freedom under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.