HHS upholds federal law by affirming longstanding definition of ‘sex’

The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor regarding the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ final rule announced Friday implementing Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits covered health programs or activities from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, age, and sex. HHS is replacing a 2016 rule that wrongly interpreted “sex” to include gender identity and termination of pregnancy.

“Word choice in federal legislation is significant and Congress has consistently used the word ‘sex’ in laws like Title VII, Title IX, and the Affordable Care Act to mean a person’s biological sex as male or female. The Trump administration is right to restore the rule of law by respecting what Congress meant. Replacing the objective concept of sex with the subjective and fluid notion of gender identity, as some courts and the prior administration have tried to do, has serious consequences for women’s sports and female-only spaces like school locker rooms, showers, and homeless women’s shelters. Confirming the clear meaning of sex as grounded in human biology ensures that women will continue to have equal opportunities in sports, school, and work, and it protects the privacy rights of all Americans.”

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.

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