Trump’s Denial Of Care Rule Blocked
Thanks to lawsuits filed by AU and allies, courts have blocked the Trump administration’s rule that invited health care providers to use religion to deny medical care.
We trust health care workers to have our best interests in mind and to make life-saving decisions based on science. We should not have to fear that we will be turned away or denied critical care because of a health provider’s religious beliefs.
But religious extremists and their lawmaker allies want to invite health care providers to use religion to deny people health care – even in emergencies and life-threatening situations.
Broad religious exemptions in the healthcare arena put everyone at risk, but people who already face the greatest barriers in accessing care – especially LGBTQ people, women, people of color and religious minorities – are harmed the most.
Our government should protect patients’ rights, not facilitate discrimination in our health care system.
Thanks to lawsuits filed by AU and allies, courts have blocked the Trump administration’s rule that invited health care providers to use religion to deny medical care.
In AU lawsuits, health experts in Baltimore, Md., and Santa Clara County, Calif., explained how not only are individuals harmed when they are turned away or avoid seeking care out of fear of discrimination, but the entire community is endangered by health problems that then go untreated.
Bills inviting medical providers to cite religion to refuse treatment – such as SB 289, a law signed by Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson in 2021 – often are targeted at LGBTQ people and reproductive care.
Abortion bans violate the separation of church and state. Americans United and the National Women’s Law Center—the leading experts in religious freedom and gender justice—have joined forces with thirteen clergy from six faith traditions to challenge Missouri’s abortion bans as unconstitutionally imposing one narrow religious doctrine on everyone.