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Health and Human Services Department Says Healthcare Workers Can Discriminate on Religious Grounds
Trump's appointed leaders of the Health and Human Services Department are busy undermining the foundations of our society and putting lives at risk.
Citing Trump's “pro-life mission,” the Health and Human Services Department announced actions.... to roll back key health-care policies of the Obama administration. Roger Severino, director for the HHS Office of Civil Rights, said a proposed rule on “conscience rights” will.... protect health-care workers who think they are being punished or discriminated against because of their moral or religious beliefs.
This means that if a nurse or doctors wishes to refuse care to someone, perhaps of a different religion, sexual preference, transgender, etc, that's acceptable. What?
To accomplish this, Republicans are creating MORE regulation - yes we said MORE. They are adding new positions and significant costs. No, not to protect the rights of the vulnerable but to protect people who have chosen the profession of medical care if they decide not to provide medical care based on hate disguised as religious beliefs.
The document released describes an approach to conscience and religious protections that is significantly broader than current regulations. The number of entities that would be covered by the new rule is massive — as many as 745,000 hospitals, dentists' offices, pharmacies, ambulance services and others — and the steps any entity must take to show it is in compliance is increased.
The draft language notes that the Office of Civil Rights could initiate a compliance review of organizations that get federal funding and look at whether the notice is in personnel manuals and employment applications, among other details.
Who is Roger Severino? No shock that he's unqualified to lead an Office of Civil Rights and was specifically chosen to attack the LGBTQ community.
He formerly ran the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation, an anti-LGBT think tank and lobbying group. He has long opposed equal treatment for transgender people in health care, military service, and access to public services, calling transgender-inclusive nondiscrimination protections a “radical social experiment.”
Severino also opposes the portion of the Affordable Care Act that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity. He has claimed: “The radical left is using government power to coerce everyone, including children, into pledging allegiance to a radical new gender ideology over and above their right to privacy, safety, and religious freedom.”
Office of Civil Rights? They are doing the exact opposite of protecting civil rights. This is disgusting.
Severino did not rule out that LGBT-related cases could come up once the rule becomes final.... the proposed rule on conscience rights could be broadly interpreted and whether, as an example, a doctor could refuse sex-reassignment surgery to someone who is transgender.