AUSTIN — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked a federal judge to ax health care protections in the Affordable Care Act for transgender Americans and women seeking abortions.

On Monday, Paxton and leaders from seven other states filed a motion in federal court to undo rules that bar discrimination based on "gender identity" and "termination of pregnancy" in the act, also known as Obamacare.

The enforcement of the protections have been on hold for more than two years, but Paxton said it's time to eliminate them once and for all.

"The federal government has no right to force Texans to pay for surgical procedures intended to change a person's sex," he said in a statement. "Our multi-state coalition is asking the U.S. District Court to issue a summary judgment to protect medical professionals who believe that engaging in such procedures or treatment violates their Hippocratic Oath, their conscience, or their personal religious beliefs, which are protected by the Constitution and federal law."

The Affordable Care Act prohibits hospitals and other health providers that receive federal money from denying care on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability or sex. In the final months of President Barack Obama's tenure, his administration released new regulations interpreting "sex" discrimination to include "gender identity" and "termination of pregnancy," meaning hospitals or health care programs who turn away transgender Americans or women seeing abortions could be denied federal funds.

The implementation of these regulations has been on hold since December 2016, when District Judge Reed O'Connor issued a nationwide injunction prohibiting their enforcement. The federal government wanted to revisit its definition of sex, and is expected to rescind these protections, but hasn't formally done so.

The delay has irked Paxton and other conservative leaders who have fought to outlaw abortion and who oppose extending more rights to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans.

In their brief Monday, they told O'Connor they shouldn't have to wait for federal bureaucrats to issue a new interpretation of the rules.

"Two years and nine status reports by the federal government later, there has been no progress," their motion for summary judgment reads. "Thus, it is time for the Rule to be set aside and wiped permanently from the Code of Federal Regulations."

Paxton is also leading a 20-state coalition fighting to overturn the entirety of Obamacare. In December, O'Connor ruled the health care law was unconstitutional. That decision has been appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Paxton is a Republican who won re-election to his second term in November.