Two dozen state attorneys general are joining a lawsuit against the Trump administration, seeking to block a new rule that protects healthcare workers’ right to object to performing abortions or gender reassignment surgeries.

States such as New York, California, Massachusetts, Washington, Michigan, and Pennsylvania have joined the lawsuit, filed July 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The Department of Health and Human Services on June 12 promulgated a rule to protect doctors’ right to object to abortion and gender reassignment operations, clarifying that bans on sex-based discrimination do not include gender identity or abortion.

The HHS said that its final rule eliminates portions of a 2016 regulation that had inappropriately expanded the definition of sex discrimination.

Several US Catholic hospitals have faced lawsuits for declining to conduct transgender surgeries.

Full story at Catholic News Agency.