On December 31, 2016, in Franciscan Alliance v. Burwell, Case No. 7:16-cv-00108-O, the District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a nationwide injunction finding that portions of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office for Civil Right’s (OCR) Final Rule for ACA Section 1557 violated the Administrative Procedures Act and cannot be enforced. The case was brought by eight States, three private healthcare providers and the Christian Medical & Dental Society.
U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor found that OCR’s interpretation of Section 1557 to prohibit discrimination against transgender persons wrongly construed both Title IX and Section 1557. He found that these statutes only prohibit discrimination on the basis of biological sex. He also found that OCR’s Final Rule failed to properly incorporate the exceptions for religious institutions and for abortion services found in Title IX – which he said that Section 1557’s language was intended to incorporate. See 20 USC § 1681(a)(3); § 1688.Continue Reading District Court Issues Nationwide Injunction on ACA 1557 Regulations on Gender Identity and Abortion