Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra got into a tense exchange with Rep. Mary Miller on Wednesday. (Getty Images)
"A doctor, if that doctor has religious objections, that doctor under these rules is not required to offer the care," Becerra said, adding doctors "don't get federal funding."
When Miller pressed him about the faith-based hospitals where many doctors work, he said, "If a health care facility is violating the law and not providing the service they're required to, they are not entitled to the resources."
Becerra told Miller earlier in the exchange, "If a provider for religious reasons objects, they are not forced to provide any particular service."
But Miller posted on X after the hearing, "After attempting to lie, HHS Secretary Becerra says the quiet part out loud. Joe Biden’s government will withhold funds from religious hospitals that refuse to provide sex-change operations for young children."
Catholic groups are outraged at Becerra's department. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
"These rules mandate gender transition surgeries even when it violates the faith of religious doctors and health care systems, not to mention their best medical judgment," Faddis said.
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Katy Talento, executive director of the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries and a former Trump administration health adviser, said the rule would force hospitals to provide transgender surgeries "or else lose access to federal funding to care for the poor and elderly, such as Medicaid and Medicare."
"Instead of helping young people embrace how God created them as male or female, the Biden administration wants to permanently alter their bodies and force sterilization in many cases. Not only should hospitals use all available legal options to fight back, but Americans more broadly must wake up to this wicked agenda and roundly reject this wicked gender ideology at every turn," said Walker Wildmon, vice president of the American Family Association.
Fox News Digital reached out to HHS for comment.
Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.
Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com
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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/catholic-groups-pummel-hhs-secretary-becerra-after-heated-exchange-with-gop-lawmaker-on-transgender-surgeries