October 4, 2022
Yesterday, EPPC scholars Roger Severino, Rachel N. Morrison, and Mary Rice Hasson submitted a public comment opposing a proposed rule by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights that would impose a radical transgender mandate in health care.
Under the proposed regulations, HHS would redefine “sex discrimination” prohibitions under Obamacare (Section 1557) to require doctors to perform and insurers to cover a dangerous and expensive array of “gender identity” treatments and surgeries, including for minors.
These interventions would include, at a minimum:
- Puberty blockers for children
- Lifetime of cross-sex hormones
- Genital and non-genital surgical procedures (hysterectomy, penectomy, mastectomy)
- Blepharoplasty (eye and lid modification)
- Face/forehead and/or neck tightening
- Facial bone remodeling for facial feminization
- Genioplasty (chin width reduction)
- Rhytidectomy (cheek, chin, and neck)
- Cheek, chin, and nose implants
- Lip lift/augmentation
- Mandibular angle augmentation/creation/reduction (jaw)
- Orbital recontouring
- Rhinoplasty (nose reshaping)
- Laser or electrolysis hair removal
- Breast/chest augmentation, reduction, construction
The proposed regulations would trample the conscience and religious freedom rights of medical professionals. They also threaten the rights of providers and insurers to decline to assist or pay for elective abortions.
A diverse group of medical professionals and legal and policy experts also submitted comments opposing HHS’s Proposed Rule.
As the EPPC scholars explain in their comment:
“The Proposed Rule would radically remake American healthcare by replacing science-based medicine with ideology-driven mandates. As proposed, the Rule is arbitrary and capricious, exceeds statutory authority, and is unlawful and unconstitutional. The primary proposed changes are unsupported by substantial evidence. The Proposed Rule contradicts long-standing scientific understandings of human biology and thereby endangers public health. The Proposed Rule turns the clock back on girls’ and women’s rights, tramples parental rights, harms children’s interests, dismantles sex-based patient protections, and violates religious freedom and conscience rights of medical professionals, hospitals, and religious institutions. The Proposed Rule inverts our civil rights law and should be withdrawn and abandoned.”
“The Biden administration is so beholden to gender ideologues that it would redefine our sex discrimination laws to erase the very concept of women,” said EPPC Senior Fellow Roger Severino, who, as former Director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights, oversaw drafting and implementation of the regulations under reconsideration. “By displacing biological sex with gender ideology in medicine, the rule would shutter faith-based health care providers, require the sterilization of kids, and force Americans to pay for it through their insurance premiums. The American people have had enough and are flooding HHS with comments begging them to stop,” added Severino.
About the EPPC comment signers:
Roger Severino, J.D., is an EPPC Senior Fellow, member of EPPC’s HHS Accountability Project, and is the former Director for the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services (2017–2021).
Rachel N. Morrison, J.D., is an EPPC Fellow, member of the HHS Accountability Project, and former attorney at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Mary Hasson, J.D., is an EPPC Fellow, attorney, and co-founder of EPPC’s Person and Identity Project, an initiative that equips parents and faith-based institutions to counter gender ideology and promote the truth of the human person.
Other organizations and experts submitting comments opposing the proposed rule include:
- 6 Senate and 15 House Republicans
- Alliance Defending Freedom
- American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG)
- American College of Pediatricians
- American College of Pediatricians Doctor
- Americans United for Life
- Catholic Benefits Association
- Catholic Health Care Leadership Alliance
- Catholic Medical Association
- Charlotte Lozier Institute
- Christ Medicus Foundation
- The Catholic University of America
- Christian Employers Alliance
- Christian Legal Society
- Christian Medical & Dental Associations
- Coalition for Jewish Values
- Concerned Women for America
- Council for Christian Colleges & Universities
- The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
- Family Research Council
- First Liberty Institute
- Health Policy Expert
- The Heritage Foundation, DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family
- The Heritage Foundation, Center for Health and Welfare Policy
- Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance
- National Association of Evangelicals
- National Catholic Bioethics Center
- Sarkes Tarzian, Inc.
- Students for Life Action
- Thomas More Society
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
