U.S. health officials said on Friday they were revoking legal guidance issued by the Obama administration that had sought to discourage states from trying to defund organizations that provide abortion services, such as Planned Parenthood.
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials also said the department was issuing a new regulation aimed at protecting healthcare workers’ civil rights based on religious and conscience objections.
Reuters
Ah, yes. The old persecution complex so loved by fundamentalists.A new civil rights division within the Department of Health and Human Services will protect health-care workers who refuse to provide services that run counter to their moral or religious convictions, the Trump administration announced Thursday.
This office will consider complaints from doctors, nurses and others who feel they have been pressured by employers to “perform, accommodate or assist with” procedures that violate their beliefs.
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The administration’s move marks the resurgence of religious liberty advocates within the federal government and represents its latest effort to elevate “conscience protections” within the health care realm.
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In announcing the new division, at an event featuring Republican lawmakers and religious leaders, HHS Acting Secretary Eric Hargan noted that many of the nation's hospitals, clinics and hospices are run by faith-based groups that oppose procedures like abortion and sterilization.
“For too long, too many of these health-care practitioners have been bullied and discriminated against,” he said.
WaPo
More Bible studies?[T]he division will not only consider complaints that might have previously languished but will also engage in public education and, possibly, policymaking.
Wow. Thirty-four whole complaints. I can see why we needed a new governmental department.Roger Severino said in an interview that OCR has seen a “pretty dramatic uptick” in health-care workers’ complaints related to moral and religious beliefs — from 10 during the entire Obama administration to 34 since Trump’s election.
On the HHS website Thursday, a Conscience and Religious Freedom section outlined the types of procedures likely to come under intensified federal scrutiny — accompanied by a photo of a female health-care worker in a Muslim headscarf.
Something tells me it won't be the Muslim health care workers who will be getting the benefit of this move.
So that means we'll soon be getting the right to withhold taxes on a conscience claim, right?The description of the division's mandate cites abortion, sterilization and assisted suicide as examples of the types of procedures covered. But legal experts said the language appears likely to also cover a host of other scenarios, such as treating transgender patients or those seeking to transition to the opposite sex.
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[C]onservatives said they now have a chance to challenge state reproductive policies as well as other mandates.
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“Governments big and small have treated conscience claims with hostility instead of protection, but change is coming, and it begins here and now,” Severino said.
There's already no federal funding for abortion services, so poor women whose only source of health care comes from Medicaid get no relief. But that wasn't enough for the righteous among us.
And who is this Roger Severino guy that Trump appointed to head HHS' "Office of Civil Rights"?
Perfect.Severino is a longtime anti-LGBTQ activist who served as the director of the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Rewire
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.“Mr. Severino has built a career on demonizing the transgender community, stoking fear about transgender identity, and—in particular—undermining equal access to health care,” [Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-MA)] said. “It’s clear the President has no intention of keeping the promises he made to LGBTQ Americans.”
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