The ‘Other’ Obamacare Mandate Has Its Day in Court

There are many different mandates rolled into the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, but those that have received the most media attention, so far, involve abortion and abortion-inducing drugs.

The ACA also requires physicians to provide sex-change surgeries and therapies to those who want them. And, like the aforementioned abortion mandates, the law offers absolutely no waiver for people of faith who oppose such measures on biblical grounds.

Currently, many doctors of faith have found themselves in the difficult position of having to choose their profession and sole means of providing for their families and obeying the Word of God. Eight states and several Christian organizations have come to their defense.

Last week, they presented oral arguments in a Texas federal court, challenging the Obamacare regulation and requesting a preliminary injunction to prevent them from having to comply with the law in violation of their conscience and religious beliefs. According to Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, the Department of Health and Human Services intentionally refused any religious exemptions despite dozens of requests and is essentially demanding faith-based organizations and religious people bow to LGBT demands.

“It is horrific that our government is trying to bully every practicing surgeon in America to cut and carve people, even children, based on a tenuous whim or wish,” Staver said. “Our First Amendment protects everyone, even doctors, from being forced to take disastrous actions opposing their religious beliefs.”

He argued the mandate forces doctors to break their Hippocratic Oath of “do no harm” and demands doctors and staff actively participate in and cause something that deeply opposes their religious beliefs. In a Liberty Counsel memo to the court, evidence shows most children who claim to identify as another gender before puberty outgrow that perception by the time they become adults. In addition, two-thirds of patients experience at least one other simultaneous psychiatric issue.

“These patients, and especially children, need to find a safe environment to address the roots of their desire for sex-change surgery,” Staver added. “Oftentimes, surgical mutilation does nothing to heal the hurt and heart of the matter. These people need to be lovingly counselled, not cut up.”

This lawsuit is in the same court that previously ended the Obama administration’s policy of forcing all schools and employers to ignore biological sex and instead include “gender identity” in their non-discrimination policies and gender-specific facilities on the basis of “gender identity.” That same edict and effort is what has been incorporated into Obamacare by the Department of Health and Human Services. {eoa}