Religious Liberty Handed Major Win in US Appeals Court
Read time: 2 minutes 32 seconds
In another blow to the Biden Administration’s attempt to force LGBTQ ideology onto religious organizations, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against the federal government.
A group of religious medical and health providers had appealed to the Eighth Circuit the government’s mandate that they perform and/or pay for transgender surgeries.
The Court, in a unanimous decision, agreed with a North Dakota lower court which granted the plaintiffs a permanent injunction blocking the mandate due to its “intrusion upon the Catholic Plaintiffs’ exercise of religion is sufficient to show irreparable harm.”
As National Review reported, this is the second time that a federal court has blocked the Biden administration’s mandate, showing how unconstitutional the mandate is.
This aggression toward religious liberty has permeated the administration as it refuses to investigate hate crimes and fire bombings against pro-life pregnancy centers and other pro-life organizations.
Attorney Luke Goodrich who works with the Becket Fund represented the plaintiffs in the case against the federal government, and released a statement condemning the unconstitutional mandate:
“The federal government has no business forcing doctors to violate their consciences or perform controversial procedures that could permanently harm their patients.”
But the groups trying to defend their religious freedom would never withhold medical care from a transgender person, contrary to the media’s portrayal of them. What they object to is being forced to perform the transgender surgeries and give hormone blockers which have been scientifically proven to be destructive of the person’s body.
Some of the dangers just from a surgery alone, never mind the mental, emotional and spiritual damage done by transgender surgeries, include: bleeding, infection, hematoma, nerve damage, urinary tract damage and more.
Even left-leaning NBC News reported back in 2018 before it became unacceptable to report on the true dangers of transgenderism, that the records of 5,000 transgender individuals showed a higher risk of blood clots, stroke and heart attack.
“This is the largest study of the health of transgender individuals on hormone therapy ever done,” Dr. Darios Getahun told NBC News. “Doctors and patients need to be aware of the possibility for increased health risks for transgender women.”
“For now, this study is the best measure we have of the risk, and it’s much better than what we’ve had before,” Getahun said.
Hoping for an end to the government mandates that conflict with their faith, Sister Petra Nielsen of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration said she hopes that this ruling will allow the plaintiffs to “carry on Jesus Christ’s healing ministry by providing the best possible care to every person who comes through our doors.”
“We are simply asking the courts to let us keep caring for all our patients with joy and compassion—as we’ve done for over 145 years,” she said.
If this administration’s pattern of policies and decisions are any indicator of the future, government intrusion into healthcare and religious freedom will only increase until the belief system in question aligns with what the government mandates. {eoa}
Bring Charisma magazine home with a subscription today!
James Lasher is Staff Writer for Charisma Media.
