American College of Pediatricians v. Becerra

The American College of Pediatricians and the Catholic Medical Association are challenging a Biden administration mandate requiring doctors to perform gender transition procedures on any patient, including a child, even if the procedure violates a doctor’s medical judgment or religious beliefs. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reinterpreted non-discrimination on the basis of sex in the Affordable Care Act to include gender identity and thus require gender transition interventions, services, surgeries, and drugs on demand, even for children, no matter a doctor’s medical judgment, religious beliefs, or conscientious objection.

Case timeline

• May 2016: The Obama/Biden administration issued a regulation reinterpreting sex in Obamacare to include sexual orientation and gender identity. A court blocked the regulation, but other courts later declared it is still in effect.
• January 2021: President Joe Biden issued an executive order for federal agencies to reinterpret “sex” in federal law to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
• May 2021: The Department of Health and Human Services announced it would implement the executive order by immediately enforcing its reinterpretation of sex for all doctors and health-care entities that receive federal health funding.
• August 2021: ADF attorneys filed a complaint in federal court against the Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of the American College of Pediatricians and the Catholic Medical Association.
• January 2023: ADF attorneys appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit after the district court dismissed the case.
• December 2023: ADF attorneys presented oral arguments before the 6th Circuit.
• June 2024: The 6th Circuit dismissed the case. ADF filed a new lawsuit on behalf of the same clients in State of Missouri v. Becerra.