By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Wednesday blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a new rule against discrimination based on gender identity in health care.
U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola in Gulfport, Mississippi, sided with 15 Republican-led states that filed a lawsuit challenging the rule, saying it overstepped the government’s authority.
The rule, finalized in May and set to go into effect Friday, extends a federal ban on sex discrimination, part of the Affordable Care Act health insurance law, to discrimination against transgender people.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which issued the regulations, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The rule was put in place after President Joe Biden, a Democrat, issued an executive order in 2022 directing federal agencies including HHS to take steps to ensure transgender people’s access to health care.
(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
