Quote:A U.S. judge on Wednesday blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a new rule against discrimination on the basis of gender identity in healthcare while he hears a lawsuit challenging it by 15 Republican-led states.

Quote:Senior U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola in Gulfport, Mississippi, said in his preliminary order, opens new tab on Wednesday that the Republican states were likely to succeed in their challenge. He said that the administration had overstepped its authority by interpreting "sex" in the federal law to include gender identity.

"Today a federal court said no to the Biden administration's attempt to illegally force every health care provider in America to adopt the most extreme version of gender ideology," Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, who led the lawsuit alongside Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, said in a statement. The states opposing the rule also include Georgia, Ohio and Virginia.