The utter gall, it’s breathtaking.
Texas is worried it could lose over a billion dollars in federal funding over Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive requiring medical professionals to report transgender children receiving gender-affirming health care as potential child abuse.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton amended an existing lawsuit suing the Biden administration Wednesday, attempting to void guidance issued by the U.S. Health and Human Services on March 2 that said restricting someone’s ability to receive medical care solely on the basis of their sex assigned at birth or gender identity is likely a violation of the Affordable Care Act for federally funded entities. That federal guidance came in response to Abbott’s directive issued late last month to treat certain medical treatments for trans children as possible crimes to be investigated by the Department of Family and Protective Services.
The federal guidance stated that health care providers do not need to disclose private patient information regarding gender-affirming care and that it is illegal to deny health care based on gender identity.
Paxton, in the lawsuit, said that guidance is based on “erroneous interpretation of sex discrimination.” The lawsuit says Texas does not aim to deny health care based on gender identity. Instead, the state argues its investigations disregard gender entirely, barring all children from “unnecessary medical interventions.”
In 2020, $1.36 billion in federal funds went to Texas’ Department of State Health Services, Paxton said in the lawsuit. More than $26 billion went to the State’s Health and Human Services Commission.
I noted the federal guidance in this post. The main thing you need to know at this point is this:
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The lawsuit is being filed in Amarillo (500 miles from Austin). It’s at least the sixth time in < 14 months that Paxton had sued Biden *there* (the 20th time overall). Why Amarillo? Because he has a *95%* chance of drawing Trump-appointee Matthew Kacsmaryk as the district judge. — Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) 5:11 PM – 9 March 2022
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Of 20 suits filed by Texas in Texas district courts in the first 14 months of the Biden Administration:0 were filed in Austin;
15 were filed in random divisions — in which a single judge hears every (or almost every) case;
16 assigned to judges appointed by President Trump.
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) 6:33 PM – 9 March 2022
It’s not a guarantee that Paxton will get what he wants from his hand-picked judge. But there’s a reason he picked him, you know? Daily Kos has more.