Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond
OKLAHOMA CITY (Oct. 23, 2025) – Attorney General Gentner Drummond won his challenge against the Biden-era Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and stopped an unlawful rule that had redefined sex discrimination and would have required healthcare providers, Medicaid, Medicare and state health exchanges to provide gender transition procedures and gender-affirming care.
In a ruling yesterday, Judge Guirola in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi found that HHS exceeded its authority by reinterpreting the Title IX prohibition on sex discrimination to include gender identity. The court reasoned, in Drummond’s favor, that when Congress enacted Title IX, its language referred distinctly to biological sex.
“The Biden Administration had no authority to impose its unlawful agenda on American healthcare,” Drummond said. “I am pleased the court agreed that health care providers should not be forced to go to such extremes as providing irreversible gender transition surgeries and care.”
The rule could have significantly impacted Oklahoma, which prohibits minors receiving puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and irreversible surgeries as part of a gender transition. Drummond said this victory strengthens the state’s ban on gender transition procedures for children.
Drummond and 14 other state attorneys general challenged the HHS rule in May 2024. Read the order.
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