Neese v. Becerra is one step closer to a decision from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals

January 8, 2024

This morning, the Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit heard oral arguments in the matter of Neese v. Becerra. At issue in this case are whether: (a) recipients of federal funds under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) may provide sex-specific medical care to their patients and (b) what the word sex means under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act (because the Affordable Care Act incorporates Title IX in its non-discrimination provision).

The US chapter of Women’s Declaration International filed an amicus brief in the case, where we argued:

1. Defining sex to include “gender identity” is legally incoherent and promotes stereotype discrimination against women;

2. The government’s policy of prohibiting sex-specific medical care harms women and girls by prioritizing “gender identity” over sex in medical care; and

3. The government’s policy of prohibiting sex-specific medical care ultimately harms women’s sports because federal law concerning the provision of health care incorporates the definition of sex under Title IX.

From the brief: 

WDI USA is interested in this appeal because it threatens the erasure of the female sex as a legal category worthy of protection. Women and girls have endured centuries of discrimination precisely because they are members of the female sex, as defined by genetics and biology. The categories of “gender identity,” “transgender woman,” and “transgender girl” erase the female sex by replacing the objective fact of being a woman with a claimed, subjective sense of being a woman. This linguistic destabilization of the meaning of sex permits males who claim a female identity to make demands on women and girls that were previously unheard of and that undermine women’s dignity and safety. In view of its work on these issues, WDI USA has a meaningful perspective to offer the Court.

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