The Religious Freedom Restoration Act bars the U.S. government from forcing Catholic health-care providers to perform gender-transition related procedures and from forcing employers to provide insurance to pay for them, a federal court in North Dakota said.
Thus, the government’s interpretation of the Affordable Care Act’s Section 1557 and Title VII as prohibiting discrimination on the basis of a person’s gender identity or transgender status can’t be enforced against entities that have sincerely held religious beliefs that preclude them from performing and covering such procedures, the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota said.
The court’s narrow ...