Vicky Arias, FISM News
A new rule in Montana requires an individual’s sex at birth to remain unchanged on their birth certificate.
The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) implemented a new rule on September 10, stating that the department may not change the sex listed on an individual’s birth certificate. According to the rule, exceptions will only be made in cases where a typo, or “data entry error,” has occurred or in instances where an individual’s sex has been misidentified.
In both exceptions, documentation from health care institutions must be provided to explain the error. If an individual’s sex was misidentified due to the rare occurrence of an intersex birth, DPHHS requires “the results of chromosomal, molecular, karyotypic, DNA or genetic testing that identify the sex of the individual,” in order for the birth certificate to be changed.
Prior to the new legislation, Montana allowed individuals to register a change to the sex listed on their birth certificate with proof of gender reassignment surgery.
However, according to the Post Millennial, two transgender activists were unhappy with the law and challenged it in court. District Court Judge Michael Moses ruled that the law was too “vague given that it did not specify which surgical procedures were required for a transgender person to be able to alter their birth certificate.” Essentially, the court found that “no surgery changes a person’s sex.”
Following the court’s decision that “no surgery changes a person’s sex,” the state of Montana revisited its stance on allowing individuals to change their sex on birth certificates, based on surgical intervention.
After careful consideration and reviewing studies from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the World Health Organization (WHO), among others, Montana’s DPHHS decided to stop allowing sex assignment alterations to birth certificates.
They determined that biological sex is immutable and unable to be physically changed and that it is their duty to maintain accurate statistics of the population within their state.
According to the NIH, “sex is a biological classification, encoded in our DNA. Males have XY chromosomes and females have XX chromosomes. Sex makes us male or female. Every cell in your body has a sex – making up tissues and organs, like your skin, brain, heart, and stomach. Each cell is either male or female depending on whether you are a man or a woman.”
Furthermore, research shows that males and females process disease in different ways, and courses of treatment for various diseases depend largely upon whether the individual is male or female. For instance, according to the WHO, “sex can affect disease risk, progression and outcomes through genetic (e.g. function of X and Y chromosomes), cellular and physiological, including hormonal, pathways … For example, data shows that men experience more severe COVID-19 outcomes in terms of hospitalizations and deaths than women.”
Additionally, the NIH found that “the blood vessels in a woman’s heart are smaller and much more intricately branched than those of a man. Those differences offer one explanation for why women’s vessels may become blocked in a different pattern than those in men. Women’s heart attack symptoms and patterns seen on a heart-screening test can differ, sometimes leading to a wrong diagnosis – or worse – missing the signs of an oncoming heart attack.”
In 2021, a group of scientists published an article in the Irish Journal of Medical Science, stating that they “regard the claim that sex is neither fixed nor binary to be entirely without scientific merit … in humans, sex is immutable [unchageable, and] disorders of sexual development are very rare … Such politically motivated policies and statements have no place in [science].”
Update:
On Thursday, September 15, District Court Judge Michael Moses blocked the enforcement of this new rule, after the ACLU of Montana asked the court to intervene.
Moses ruled that Montana must return to a 2017 law that allowed birth certificates to be altered. According to the Associated Press, Montana state officials said they “would disregard the ruling.” Charlie Brereton, director of the Department of Public Health and Human Services, said Montana intends to keep its recently passed rule and will “[wait] to see the judge’s written order before considering its next steps.”
Editor’s Note:
This is an obvious win for Biblical truth in a world where radical, anti-truth gender ideology has rapidly become mainstream. Let us continue to pray that more local, state, and federal agencies, legislators, and courts will enact and uphold common-sense rules like this to protect the truth of biological sex against those who wish to push harmful, illegitimate ideologies.
So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Genensis 1:27).