Federal judge strikes down Obamacare protections for transgender people — citing religious freedom
A U.S. District Court judge in Texas has overturned the protections written into Obamacare for transgender people, ruling they violate the religious rights of healthcare providers who hold religious beliefs that oppose the existence of transgender people.
On Tuesday Judge Reed O’Connor, appointed by President George W. Bush, “vacated an Obama-era regulation that prohibited providers and insurers who receive federal money from denying treatment or coverage to anyone based on sex, gender identity or termination of pregnancy,” The Hill reports.
That regulation also mandated healthcare providers perform medically necessary services for transgender patients.
O’Connor is known as the same federal judge who ruled the entire Affordable Care Act unconstitutional last year.
The Trump administration is supporting a large group of Republican state attorneys general working to strip protections from people with pre-existing conditions, and ultimately, have Obamacare voided by the courts.
