Benedict Smith.
Cameron Henderson
27 September 2024 11:02am
A Christian medical group has claimed it will be forced to provide sex-change drugs to patients under a Michigan law.
Christian Healthcare Centers argues that it will be “punished” by the state if it refuses to distribute testosterone and oestrogen, which it says goes against the religious beliefs of staff, under an “extreme” civil rights law.
The group suggested the law tramples on religious liberties.
Christian Healthcare Centers also claimed that the state’s 1976 Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act has been “reinterpreted” to include gender identity and will compel staff to refer to patients by their preferred pronouns rather than those matching their biological sex.
It currently does not prescribe the hormone medications to transgender patients, or those questioning their gender identity and it argues the law has opened the door to a legal challenge that threatens its existence.
“Michigan’s law is very extreme in the sense that unlike most other state laws, it has no religious exemption for religious organisations,” Brian Neihart, one of the lawyers acting for Christian Healthcare Centers, told The Telegraph.
“What’s fundamentally at stake here is the right of religious organisations across Michigan to be free to operate and serve the community according to their religious beliefs.”
Wide reach
Mr Neihart, who is special counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom pressure group, which is supporting the medical group, added that the law could create a wider precedent if left unchallenged.
“I think the principles that are established in this case will have reach beyond Michigan,” he said.
“On the topic of pronouns, for example, by using a pronoun inconsistent with someone’s sex, you’re communicating a view on sex that many religious people fundamentally disagree with. “And so that principle that we’re arguing – the First Amendment protects that type of speech – would have broader implications beyond this particular case.”
According to a complaint the medical group submitted in 2022: “The law requires Christian Healthcare to check its religious faith at the clinic door – the very faith that motivates the clinic to open its doors to help those in need.”
The case was initially dismissed by a district court when it was first heard, with Michigan arguing there was “no credible threat” that its laws would be enforced against Christian Healthcare Centers.
However, the appeals court disagreed, and the case will now return to the district court following the ruling, on Sept 20.
Christian Healthcare Centers had “plausibly established a credible threat that [Michigan] will enforce against them at least some of the challenged provisions of Michigan’s laws”, the appeals court said.
The healthcare group is now seeking an injunction to ensure that legal action will not be taken against it for refusing to prescribe sex-change drugs.
“Every day that they decline to prescribe cross-sex hormones or use pronouns inconsistent with sex and operate consistent with their religious beliefs, is another day that this law threatens to punish them for those beliefs,” Mr Neihart said.
The Michigan attorney-general has been approached for comment.
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