Trump administration considering rollback of transgender protections, report says
WASHINGTON (FoxNews.com) - The Trump administration is considering a possible rollback of Obama-era recognitions and protections that broadened the definition of gender, according to a report Sunday.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is looking into establishing the legal definition of sex under Title IX as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth, a memo obtained by the New York Times showed. Title IX is the federal law that bans gender discrimination in education programs that receive government financial assistance.
HHS wants to define gender as determined “on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable,” according to the memo. That definition would define someone as either male or female, determined by a person’s genitals at birth. It would be legally unchangeable and any dispute about one’s sex would have to be clarified using genetic testing.
An HHS spokeswoman told Fox News the department does not comment on alleged leaked documents. Roger Severino, head of the Office of Civil Rights at HHS, said: “A federal court has blocked HHS’s rule on gender identity and termination of pregnancy as contrary to law and infringing the rights of healthcare providers across the country. The court order remains in full force and effect today and HHS is abiding by it as we continue to review the issue.”
Judge Reed O’Connor of the Federal District Court in Fort Worth, Texas, ruled in 2016 that "Congress did not understand ‘sex’ to include ‘gender identity’" when it passed the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare. Many civil rights groups have pointed to other court rulings that said bias against transgender people represented discrimination under Title IX and other laws.