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| President Donald Trump Photo Credit: James Skidmore / Flickr |
The Obama administration changed the definition of "sex-discrimination" as part of the Affordable Care Act in May of 2016, but the enforcement of the new definition was blocked by the courts in December of that year. Now, the HHS has officially finalized a new rule which will prevent the Obama rule from going into effect simply because a different judge rules in favor of it.
“HHS will enforce Section 1557 by returning to the government’s interpretation of sex discrimination according to the plain meaning of the word ‘sex’ as male or female and as determined by biology,” the HHS announced on Sunday.
Several organizations have already filed lawsuits challenging the rule change, but the outcome of those challenges is uncertain. The previous form of the HHS rule was blocked by federal courts, but the Supreme Court recently made a decision that included transgenderism in the definition of "sex-discrimination" as it relates to the Civil Rights Act. The abortion-related portion of the rule does not appear to have any major legal challenges given these challenges, however.
