PHOENIX, Ariz. — Two teenagers who were born female but identify as male have sued the State of Arizona as its Medicaid program does not cover “sex change”-related surgeries, including the chest reconstruction surgery they both desire.
The two teens, ages 17 and 15 and identified as D.H. and John, state that they have struggled with anxiety and suicidal thoughts as they are not happy with their female bodies.
Their mental health therapists put them on male hormones and later recommended, as they both wear binders to flatten their breasts, that they also obtain chest reconstruction surgery to help alleviate their psychological distress.
But Arizona law specifically states that “gender reassignment surgeries” are “excluded from AHCCCS (Arizona Health Care Cost Containment) coverage,” and the teens’ Medicare managed healthcare plans consequently declined coverage for the operations. Their parents cannot afford to pay for the surgeries out of their own pocket.
Their lawsuit, filed as a class action on behalf of others in the state under the age of 21, asserts that the exclusion under the law “impermissibly discriminates against plaintiffs and members of the class for being transgender and violates their right to equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”
“Defendant’s promulgation and continued enforcement of the challenged exclusion did not, and does not, serve any rational, legitimate, important, or compelling state interest,” it argues. “Rather, the challenged exclusion serves only to prevent plaintiffs and
members of the class from obtaining medically necessary surgical care and services to treat their gender dysphoria, complete their gender transitions, and live as their authentic selves.”
The legal challenge seeks a declaration that the exclusion violates the Medicare Act and the Affordable Care Act, as well as the United States Constitution.
Read the lawsuit in full here.
As previously reported, last month, a woman in Maryland who identifies as a man filed suit against a Catholic hospital for cancelling her hysterectomy.
“An instrumentality of the state may not operate a Catholic hospital or deny medical care to transgender patients based on Catholic religious beliefs. By invoking Catholic religious doctrine as a basis for canceling … Hammons’ medically necessary surgery, defendants violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment,” the lawsuit states.
The complainant, who goes by the name Jesse Hammons, is “married” to Lura Groen, who leads Abiding Savior Lutheran Church in Columbia.
As previously reported, Walt Heyer, a man who identified as a woman for eight years until he became regenerated by the Spirit of God, wrote an article in 2017 remarking that allowing sufferers to conform their bodies to their psychology does not solve the underlying problem.
“Too many U.S. medical practitioners direct all gender-distressed people toward the extreme measures of conforming the body to the mind, rather than exploring the psychological issues that lie beneath the feelings,” he stated. “Giving powerful hormones and recommending radical surgeries without screening for psychological issues first causes great harm to the patients and their families.”
“Many people who are regretful and suicidal followed to the letter the generally accepted treatment protocol of doctor-prescribed hormone therapy and genital surgery,” Heyer, who now helps those with sex-change regret, outlined. “It is not homophobic, transphobic, or bigoted to look at the causes of dissatisfaction and suicide among the transgender population. Rather, it is a caring, heartfelt way to prevent dissatisfaction and suicides.”
While some view transgenderism as a medical condition, Christians believe the matter is also, at its root, a spiritual issue — one that stems from the same predicament all men everywhere face without Christ.
The Bible teaches that all are born with the Adamic sin nature, having various inherent feelings and inclinations that are contrary to the law of God, and being utterly incapable of changing by themselves.
It is why Jesus came: to “save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
Scripture outlines that Jesus came to be the propitiation for men’s sins (1 John 2:2; 1 John 4:10), a doctrine in Christianity known as substitutionary atonement, and to save men from the wrath of God for their violations against His law (Romans 4:25, Romans 5:9, Romans 5:16), a doctrine known as justification.
The Bible also teaches about regeneration, as in addition to sparing guilty men from eternal punishment, Christ sent his Holy Spirit to make those who would repent and believe the gospel new creatures in the here and now, with new desires and an ability to do what is pleasing in the sight of God by His indwelling and empowerment (Ezekiel 11:19, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Titus 3:5).
Jesus said that men must be born again, and have their very nature transformed by the Spirit from being in Adam to being in Christ, or they cannot see the Kingdom of God (John 3:3-8).
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