~~UNITED STATES/ FRONT LINES~~

~~'Judge Bans Obamacare Mandate'

~~A federal district court judge of Texas ruled Oct. 15 that Obamacare regulations requiring medical facilities to provide abortion and transgender care services violate the rights of private health care providers and insurers who do not facilitate such services because of their religious beliefs.

In his ruling, Judge Reed O'Connor effectively made permanent to preliminary injunction he issued in December 2016 that prevented the Department of Health and Human Services from applying the Obama administration's re-definition of "sex" discrimination to include denying persons access to transgender care and abortions.

Christian health provider Franciscan Alliance joined a group of states and religious plaintiffs and filed a lawsuit in August 2016 claiming that the federal Office of Civil Rights' (OCR) re-definition of discrimination "on the basis of sex" to include "gender identity" and "termination of pregnancy" violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

O'Connor also ruled that the Affordable Care Act requirement, coupled with the OCR's expanded definition of "sex" as a protected class to include LGBTQ persons, created "substantial burden" on healthcare providers and insurers to perform and cover gender transition procedures and abortions in violation of their religious beliefs. ~~

--DECISION / (December 2019)~