A district court ruled Monday that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) violated the First Amendment by attempting to force religious health care workers to provide gender transition procedures.
In 2021, the Christian Employers Alliance (CEA) filed a lawsuit against the EEOC over two mandates requiring religious employers to provide health insurance that covered gender transitions as well as forcing religious physicians to perform sex-change procedures or face charges of discrimination based on gender identity. The District Court of North Dakota ruled in favor of the CEA, arguing that the rules would violate an employer’s or doctor’s religious beliefs.
“We are overjoyed our members will not have to choose between the biblically based employee benefits and quality healthcare they provide, and the threat of federal enforcement and massive costs for practicing their faith,” Shannon Royce, president of CEA, said in a press release.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which represented CEA, argued that not only did the mandates require employers and doctors to cover and perform sex-change procedures, but it also demanded that they speak positively of them even if they objected, according to the press release.
The court, however, prohibited the EEOC from interpreting Title VII, which relates to discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin, to withhold funding because of an employer or doctors’ religious objections to sex-change medical procedures.
“By misinterpreting and improperly enforcing federal law, President Biden has far overreached his constitutional authority, to the detriment of people of faith across the country,” Matt Bowman, senior counsel for ADF, said in the press release. “The government cannot force Christian employers to pay for, or physically perform, harmful medical procedures that contradict their religious beliefs. The Constitution protects religious healthcare providers and employers and allows them to go about their work in a manner compatible with their deeply held convictions and faith.”
The EEOC did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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