The Trump administration on Friday finalized its rollback of protections against gender identity discrimination in health care regulated by the Affordable Care Act.

The US Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement it would recognize “sex discrimination according to the plain meaning of the word ‘sex’ as male or female and as determined by biology.”

The move means insurance policies and health care regulated under the Obama-era Affordable Care Act can deny services to transgender people. HHS said it is reverting to a time when the government “declined to recognize sexual orientation as a protected category under the ACA.”

A number of organizations strongly criticized the move, with the Human Rights Campaign vowing to sue in an attempt to block the new rule.

“We cannot and will not allow Donald Trump to continue attacking us,” the group’s president, Alphonso David, said in a statement. “LGBTQ people get sick. LGBTQ people need health care. LGBTQ people should not live in fear that they cannot get the care they need simply because of who they are.”

Health and Human Services argues the rule will save taxpayers “$2.9 billion in undue and ineffective regulatory burdens over five years,” according to its statement.

The department said the rule change is consistent with a 2016 federal court ruling saying the protections weren’t consistent with civil rights and religious freedom precedent and law. Health and Human Services effectively vacated the protections last year.

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The National LGBTQ Task Force said more than 134,000 Americans have opposed the changes on the record during the mandated public comment period.

The conservative, Family Research Council hailed the Trump administration change.

Mary Beth Waddell, senior legislative assistant for the organization, said in a statement that “the rule finalized today helps protect health care providers from being forced to participate in and perform services that substantially violate their consciences and help protect their patients,” she said. “Family Research Council fully supports these revisions to ensure Obamacare isn’t used as a vehicle to advance transgender or abortion politics.

Source: nbc