Joe Biden suffers legal blow in Texas

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton celebrated a “huge win” on Wednesday after new Biden administration rules which he claimed would require states to pay for gender-affirming healthcare were put on hold by a judge.

Judge Jeremy Kernodle, from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, said federal authorities are “attempting to impose a sweeping new social policy by manipulating and perverting the statutory text” which he said could cause “irreparable harm.”

The case was brought by the Republican-dominated states of Texas and Montana in June after the Biden administration introduced a new interpretation of the Obama-era Affordable Care Act which bans discrimination based on gender in healthcare provision. In March, new rules were issued by the Department of Health and Human Services which extended this ban on discrimination to cover transgender people. Healthcare providers who ignore the rules can face a range of enforcement measures from being required to undergo additional training to being stripped of federal funding.

Paxton argued this would force state authorities and healthcare providers to pay for gender transition procedures against their will and accused the federal government of “trying to sidestep the Constitution.”

In his ruling, Judge Kernodle said the extension of anti-discrimination protections in the Affordable Care Act would “require healthcare providers and States to perform and pay for so-called ‘gender-transition’ procedures-or else lose federal funding.”

Kernodle concluded this amounted to the federal government imposing “a sweeping new social policy by manipulating and perverting the statutory text that constrains them” and granted the preliminary injunction requested by Texas and Montana.

Posting on X following the court’s decision, Paxton said: “HUGE WIN: Texas has defeated Biden’s attempt to require healthcare providers and States to perform and pay for ‘gender-transition’ procedures under threat of losing federal funding.

“The Court has stayed the Administration’s rule, noting Biden does not have the authority to require healthcare providers or States to perform or pay for these experimental procedures.

“I have fought Biden’s ‘transgender’ agenda every step of the way, and will continue to stand up for Texas against his illegal mandates.”

Newsweek contacted the Department of Health and Human Services and the White House press office for comment by email on Thursday outside of usual office hours.

The decision by Texas and Montana to challenge the extension of Affordable Care Act discrimination protections to transgender patients was condemned by Ricardo Martinez, CEO of LGBTQ+ rights group Equality Texas.

Speaking to The Texas Tribune in June, Martinez said: “Health care for transgender adults remains legal in the state of Texas.

“And while Ken Paxton seems to have little regard for medical freedom, it’s essential that trans adults who use Medicaid have access to vital care.”

In June, a Biden administration attempt to extend equality protections contained within Title IX of the 1972 Educational Amendments to cover LGBTQ+ students was blocked by a federal judge in Texas.

In response to the Biden administration’s revisions, Texas Governor Greg Abbott wrote to public colleges and universities in the state, instructing them to ignore what he called the administration’s “illegal rewrite” of Title IX protections.