The lawsuit from seven states and the American College of Pediatricians contends the 182-page Final Rule, which threatens noncompliant hospitals and doctors with extensive financial penalties, attempts to override state laws that protect children from irreversible mutilation.
"[It] supersedes the conscious protections that are protecting doctors and other healthcare providers in these particular situations, threatening the revocation of federal funds," adds Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel.
He says the burdensome penalties, if imposed, would put some hospitals and doctors in a financial quagmire.
"They could lose Medicare and Medicaid funds," the attorney notes. "And for some of these hospitals … that refuse to do this, this could be tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars for these facilities – certainly for the individual doctors. They could ultimately bankrupt their practice."
This legal challenge comes on the heels of four ongoing lawsuits against two other Biden administration rules that also infuse gender identity into the definition of "sex."
The plaintiffs, including Missouri, Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Idaho, and Arkansas, contend that the HHS rule is "based on politics, not science" and prevents them from voicing their concerns about gender transitions.
The seven states are among the 25 that currently ban harmful puberty blockers, hormones, and mutilating surgeries for children.
