In a recent hearing of the House Education and Workforce Committee, Xavier Becerra, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, suggested that hospitals refusing to perform gender reassignment surgeries on minors could potentially jeopardize their federal funding.
The committee chairwoman, Mary Miller (R-IL), questioned Becerra, "Can you commit here today that your department will not withhold federal funding from hospitals or doctors who refuse to provide the gender-affirming care that you are, you know, mandating, if it violates their religious beliefs?"
Becerra responded by distinguishing between individual doctors and healthcare systems. "Youre going somewhere completely different," he said. "First, you started talking about how a doctor should have the rights to not offer particular care. Then you stretch it out to provide for the system-wide services. Very different."
Miller continued to press the issue, asking, "You put out this guidance and doctors need to know, what are you going to do if they refuse to provide this care?"
Becerra clarified that doctors with religious objections would not be compelled to provide gender reassignment surgeries or hormone treatments for transgender minors. However, he made a distinction between individual doctors and the hospitals they work for, stating, "Dont confuse the two, a doctor is not a hospital."
Miller persisted, asking whether federal funding would be withheld from healthcare facilities where doctors refuse to provide such care. Becerra responded, "If a healthcare facility is violating the law and not providing the service they're required to, they are not entitled to the resources."
In a subsequent press release, Miller accused Becerra of being "complicit in Joe Bidens efforts to force doctors to perform sex-change operations on young children even if they have religious concerns."
She added, "When I questioned Secretary Becerra today, he admitted that the Biden administration will indeed withhold federal funding from religious hospitals if doctors do not comply with their inhumane mandate. I will continue to oppose the brutal mutilation of our children, and I will continue to be a voice in Congress for the parents who are outraged by Joe Biden's radical agenda."
This controversy follows a new rule issued by HHS in late April, stating that federally funded healthcare providers cannot "deny or limit health services, including those that have been typically or exclusively provided to, or associated with, individuals of one sex, to an individual based upon the individual's sex assigned at birth, gender identity, or gender otherwise recorded."
Login