The Obama administration is officially mandating that hospitals and other healthcare providers provide abortions and “gender transition” services or risk losing federal funding.

The order came on May 13, the same day that the administration issued a threat to the nation’s schools demanding students with gender identity issues be allowed to use whatever restroom and locker room they prefer. Like the medical providers, schools were threatened with loss of federal funding.

According to LifeSiteNews, the hospital mandate goes further than the school policy, as violators may be recommended for prosecution under the Department of Justice.

The mandate is based upon Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. In a press release issued last year by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), the administration declared that the section extends “civil rights protections banning sex discrimination to health programs and activities.”

“Previously,” said the release, “civil rights laws enforced by HHS’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) barred discrimination based only on race, color, national origin, disability, or age.”

The release outlined several changes to discrimination law, specifically that “women are protected from discrimination not only in the health coverage they obtain but in the health services they seek from providers.” Additionally, “Individuals may not be subject to discrimination based on gender identity. For example, some insurance policies have historically contained categorical exclusions on coverage of all care related to gender transition.”

“Those categorical exclusions are prohibited under the proposed rule. Individuals must also be treated consistent with their gender identity, including in access to facilities.”

In a statement issued on May 13, HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell praised the law. “Today’s announcement is a key step toward realizing equity within our health care system and reaffirms this Administration’s commitment to giving every American access to the health care they deserve,” she said.

Opponents, however, decried the changes, even though the rule states religious exemptions are kept in place.

“As bad as the ACA is, it’s laughable to suggest that when Congress referred to ‘sex’ in Section 1557 it was referring to anything other than biological sex,” stated First Liberty attorney Ken Klukowski at Breitbart.

“This is Orwellian,” continued Klukowski. “But beyond that, it is an unconstitutional assault on the First Amendment that the Obama administration is forcing their rejection of biological fact onto people whose faith teaches that ‘man’ and ‘woman’ refer to what they have meant for thousands of years, and that God purposefully created them that way.”

One leading doctor, Association of American Physicians and Surgeons Executive Director Jane Orient, was quoted by LifeSiteNews as saying “transgender treatment, especially to minors, inflicts irreversible harm on persons too young to consent,” she stated. “It constitutes radical, non-consented social experimentation. Chemical or surgical castration should be considered a crime against humanity.”

“Affirming a patient’s delusions (e.g. that he really is a she) is considered psychiatric malpractice in other contexts,” Orient continued.

Family Research Council Vice President of Government Affairs David Christensen said in a statement that “HHS’s final rule concocts out of thin air a redefinition of sex discrimination to include both gender identity and abortion.”

“This intolerant and unjust rule, in turn, threatens to force health care providers to participate in and perform services that substantially violate their consciences.”

Last year, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and other groups joined forces to oppose the mandate before it was finalized.