Texas professors join in suing Biden administration over ‘lawless’ new abortion, transgender regulations

Two University of Texas professors have joined a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas against the Biden administration’s rewriting of Title IX regulations to include transgender athletes.

The lawsuit asks a U.S. district court to prevent states and regulated entities from losing crucial Title IX funding for refusing to obey changes that conflict with state laws.

Statements by professors Daniel Bonevac and John Hatfield say:

“I have no intention of complying with the Biden Administration’s recently announced Title IX edict, which has nothing to do with ‘sex’ discrimination and represents nothing more than an attempt to force every educator in the United States to conform to a highly contentious interpretation of gender ideology and abortion rights.”

The lawsuit follows the U.S. Department of Education’s final Title IX regulations in April. DOE’s overhaul of the federal regulations include redefining “discrimination on the basis of sex” to encompass a controversial scope of items such as “pregnancy-related conditions,” which is defined to include abortion, and “gender identity.” 

For many in the field of education, including Bonevac and Hatfield, the new Title IX regulations raise important ethical dilemmas. In their statements, the professors note several key areas in which they refuse to comply with the Biden administration’s new social policy – including rejecting the use of preferred pronouns and refusing to provide approved absences for students missing class to undergo abortions. 

“I will not accommodate a purely elective abortion that serves only to kill an unborn child that was conceived through an act of voluntary and consensual sexual intercourse,” the statements read. 

“Pregnancy is not a disease, and elective abortions are not ‘health care’ or ‘medical treatment’ of any sort. They are purely elective procedures, and I will not accommodate an act of violence against the most vulnerable and defenseless members of the human family.” 

The plaintiffs are represented by America First Legal, which has also requested a preliminary injunction blocking the new regulations from taking effect. 

“Biden’s new Title IX rule would force girls in every public school in America to share restrooms, locker rooms, and private facilities with men,” argues Stephen Miller, president of AFL. 

“It would force onto millions of children the destructive and abusive ideology which holds [that] drugs and mutilative surgery can reverse a child’s gender and make boys into girls and girls into boys. We are privileged to work in partnership with Texas and the indomitable [Attorney General] Ken Paxton to seek the urgent termination of this lawless decree.”