Biden Title IX Proposal: Medical Community Should Oppose | National Review
A different federal law, Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded health-care programs or activities, does so by incorporating Title IX s prohibition against sex discrimination. Thus, whatever Title IX regulations say about sex discrimination in the education context will have a direct impact on the medical profession.
In June 2022, on the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the Department of Education announced proposed regulations that would fundamentally rewrite the historic civil-rights law.
If adopted, Biden s Title IX regulations would greatly expand the scope of what is considered sex discrimination. Perhaps most significantly, sex discrimination would be radically defined and expanded to include discrimination based on gender identity and termination of pregnancy (which covers elective abortions). Not only would this proposal have a negative impact on women s bathrooms, dorm rooms, and sports teams, but with Title IX s direct implications on 1557 s interpretation and enforcement, it could have dire consequences for the medical profession.
Indeed, other recently proposed regulations directly on 1557 by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would mirror the definition of sex discrimination in the proposed Title IX regulations.
Under the proposed 1557 regulations, it would be illegal to deny or limit health services sought for purposes of gender transition or other gender-affirming care that the covered entity would provide to an individual for other purposes if the denial or limitation is based on a patient s sex assigned at birth, gender identity, or gender otherwise recorded. In short, doctors and hospitals would be required to provide patients, including children, with puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender transition surgeries. And insurance providers would be required to cover these expensive drugs and procedures.
These mandates are appalling considering medical interventions for transitioning can cause significant and irreversible harms, such as removal or mutilation of healthy body parts, infertility, and loss of sexual function. This so-called gender-affirming care can condemn patients to a lifetime of medical complications and treatments.
Ugh.