A federal judge in North Carolina, Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor, found on Monday, March 4, that Christian healthcare providers and employers cannot be forced to pay for gender transition surgeries and other, similar procedures. In the ruling, Judge Traynor found that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are not constitutionally able to force the Christian Employers Alliance (CEA) to comply with rules that require coverage of such procedures.
Such is what the Alliance Defending Freedom, a liberty-focused non-profit that brought the case on behalf of the CEA, announced in a press release on the outcome of the case. The ADF characterized its courtroom victory as a major win for religious employers and said that the ruling would help defend those who think their religious beliefs are violated by having to pay for such procedures.
“In a victory for religious employers, a federal district court ruled Monday that the Biden administration cannot force non-profit and for-profit religious employers and healthcare providers to violate their religious beliefs by paying for and performing harmful “gender transition” surgeries, procedures, counseling, and treatments,” the ADF announced.
Continuing, the ADF described the background of the case, saying that the CEA asked the district court to prevent the imposition of two mandates on it, mandates that would have forced it to pay for gender transition surgeries and the other, above described medical procedures and related services, such as counseling.
The suit was filed in October of 2021, and in it, CEA argued that “the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is misinterpreting and improperly enforcing discrimination based on sex in Title VII to force religious employers to pay for and provide health insurance coverage for such surgeries and procedures.” Further, it argued that HHS should not have reinterpreted “sex” to include gender identity, as doing so forces “religious healthcare providers who receive federal funding to physically perform or facilitate surgeries and procedures that conflict with their deeply held beliefs.”
The court acceded to the ADF’s petition on behalf of CEA, with Judge Traynor finding that “CEA’s religious beliefs are substantially burdened by the monetary penalties it faces for refusing to violate its beliefs.” Judge Traynor added, “[P]erforming or providing health care coverage for gender transition services under the EEOC and HHS coverage mandates impinges upon CEA’s beliefs.”
Further, Judge Traynor added that “CEA must either comply with the EEOC and HHS mandates by violating their sincerely held religious beliefs or else face harsh consequences like paying fines and facing civil liability… [But] religious freedom cannot be encumbered on a case-by-case basis.”
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Judge Traynor also found that the government had not shown that the rights of transgender individuals who are employees could not be protected in another way that does not infringe the “sincerely held religious beliefs” of employers like those in the CEA, giving examples like tax credits or subsidies as ways that it could do so.