title: BREAKING: Federal Judge STOPS Obamacare Transgender, Abortion Related Protections
text: O Connor found that the plaintiffs had standing to bring the lawsuit because they  have presented concrete evidence to support their fears that they will be subject to enforcement under the Rule. WASHINGTON   A federal judge in Texas on Saturday issued a nationwide injunction halting enforcement of Obama administration protections for transgender and abortion-related healthcare services just one day before they were due to go into effect. The lawsuit   brought by Texas, a handful of other states, and some religiously affiliated nonprofit medical groups   challenges a regulation implementing the sex nondiscrimination requirement found in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Health and Human Services (HHS) regulation  forbids discriminating on the basis of  gender identity  and  termination of pregnancy  under Obamacare, as US District Court Judge Reed O Connor wrote in his opinion halting enforcement of those provisions in the rule.Specifically, the ACA provision   Section 1557   prohibits discrimination in federally-funded health benefits, including based on sex. Over the course of 2015 and this year, HHS proposed and finalized a regulation interpreting the definition of  sex  in that provisions to include  gender identity    defined as  internal sense of gender, which may be male, female, neither, or a combination of male and female    as well as  sex stereotyping  and  termination of pregnancy. Explaining the lawsuit, O Connor wrote,  Plaintiffs claim the Rule s interpretation of sex discrimination pressures doctors to deliver healthcare in a manner that violates their religious freedom and thwarts their independent medical judgment and will require burdensome changes to their health insurance plans on January 1, 2017.  The states and nonprofits in the healthcare lawsuit allege that the regulation violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA)   which sets the rules for federal government rule-making   and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). O Connor found that the plaintiffs had standing to bring the lawsuit because they  have presented concrete evidence to support their fears that they will be subject to enforcement under the Rule.  The White House defended the administration s policies on Saturday night.Read more: Buzzfeed