Biden’s HHS says hospitals that refuse to perform child sex changes could lose federal funding

"Can you commit here today that your department will not withhold federal funding from hospitals or doctors who refuse to provide the gender-affirming care that you are, you know, mandating, if it violates their religious beliefs?" asked committee chairwoman Mary Miller (R-IL)

"You’re going somewhere completely different," Becerra responded. "First, you started talking about how a doctor should have the rights to not offer particular care. Then you stretch it out to provide for the system-wide services. Very different."

Miller continued to press Becerra, saying, "You put out this guidance and doctors need to know, what are you going to do if they refuse to provide this care?"

Becerra said that a doctor with religious objections would not be required to provide sex change surgeries and hormone treatments for trans minors.

"So, you’re committing here today that you will not withhold federal funding," said Miller.

Becerra said in response that doctors don’t receive federal funding, to which Miller noted that the hospitals that these doctors work at do.

"Don’t confuse the two, a doctor is not a hospital," said Becerra.

"Doctors are working for these hospitals. Are you going to say today, are you committing that you will not withhold federal funding from those health care facilities," Miller asked.

"If a healthcare facility is violating the law and not providing the service they're required to, they are not entitled to the resources," said Becerra.

In a press release, Miller said, "Secretary Becerra is complicit in Joe Biden’s efforts to force doctors to perform sex-change operations on young children even if they have religious concerns."

"When I questioned Secretary Becerra today, he admitted that the Biden administration will indeed withhold federal funding from religious hospitals if doctors do not comply with their inhumane mandate. I will continue to oppose the brutal mutilation of our children, and I will continue to be a voice in Congress for the parents who are outraged by Joe Biden's radical agenda."

A new rule issued by HHS in late April states that federally funded healthcare providers cannot "deny or limit health services, including those that have been typically or exclusively provided to, or associated with, individuals of one sex, to an individual based upon the individual's sex assigned at birth, gender identity, or gender otherwise recorded."