HHS upholds federal law by affirming longstanding definition of 'sex'
The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor regarding the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ final rule announced Friday implementing Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits covered health programs or activities from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, age, and sex. HHS is replacing a 2016 rule that wrongly interpreted “sex” to include gender identity and termination of pregnancy.“Word choice in federal legislation is significant, and Congress has consistently used the word ‘sex’ in laws like Title VII, Title IX, and the Affordable Care Act to mean a person’s biological sex as male or female. The Trump administration is right to restore the rule of law by respecting what Congress meant. Replacing the objective concept of sex with the subjective and fluid notion of gender identity, as some courts and the prior administration have tried to do, has serious consequences for women’s sports and female-only spaces like school locker rooms, showers, and homeless women’s shelters. Confirming the clear meaning of sex as grounded in human biology ensures that women will continue to have equal opportunities in sports, school, and work, and it protects the privacy rights of all Americans.”
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
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ABOUT Gregory S. Baylor
Gregory S. Baylor serves as senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, where he is the director of the Center for Religious Schools and senior counsel with the Center for Public Policy. Since joining ADF in 2009, Baylor has focused on defending and advancing the religious freedom of faith-based educational institutions through advice, education, legislative and public advocacy, and representation in disputes. He has testified about religious liberty issues three times before congressional committees. Greg earned his Juris Doctor in 1990 from Duke University School of Law, where he graduated Order of the Coif, with high honors, and served on the editorial board of the Duke Law Journal. He received his bachelor’s degree in Honors English in 1987 from Dartmouth College. Following graduation from law school, he served as law clerk to the Hon. Jerry E. Smith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. He practiced labor and employment law at two large international law firms for three years before joining the staff of Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom, where he served for 15 years prior to joining ADF.