Court Strikes Down Obama Rule Forcing Doctors to Perform Transgender Surgery

On Tuesday, a district court judge struck down the Obama administration's since defunct mandate forcing doctors to perform transgender surgery regardless of their religious convictions or conscientious objections. The mandate, handed down by Obama's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), ironically did not apply to Medicare and Medicaid or to military doctors because the government's own research showed that transgender hormones and surgeries can be harmful.

Under Trump, the HHS finalized rules protecting religious freedom, but the Obama mandate remained on the books.

The ruling in Franciscan Alliance v. Azar struck down that mandate and upheld the religious freedom of doctors who would refuse to administer hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery. Some doctors have warned that even the hormones — the less invasive "treatment" — give healthy people a disease. The actual surgery often involves sterilizing a patient for life. Mandating such "treatments" would force doctors to violate the Hippocratic oath.

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