Trump Regime Scraps LGBTQ Healthcare Bias Protections

The viciousness and inhumanity are features, not bugs -- part infinity:

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Friday released a final rule scrapping ObamaCare’s nondiscrimination protections for sex and gender identity.

The previous administration’s rule made it illegal for doctors, hospitals and other health care workers to deny care to someone whose sexual orientation or gender identity they disapproved of by expanding the law’s definition of sex discrimination to include gender identity for the first time.

The new policy establishes the government’s interpretation of sex discrimination to be based on "the plain meaning of the word 'sex' as male or female and as determined by biology."

Advocates and health groups said the policy will make it easier for doctors, hospitals and insurance companies to deny care or coverage to transgender and nonbinary patients as well as women who have had abortions. [snip]

The measure also comes amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, with advocates saying LGBTQ people could be denied critical health care coverage under the provision.

Religious providers have long anticipated the new rule, arguing the administration should reinforce their right to not provide treatment they say is against their beliefs.

Just as with the decision (now changed) to hold the next Trump Nuremberg rally in Tulsa on Juneteenth, the timing of the final rule during June -- Pride Month -- could not have been accidental.

The fundamentalists and other "religious" conservatives currently holding sway over Bunker Boy and his minions at HHS want to "reinforce their right to not provide treatment they say is against their beliefs."  Isn't that so very Christian of them?!

Joe Biden responded:

This action is unconscionable — and to do so during Pride Month, on the fourth anniversary of the deadly terrorist attack at the Pulse Nightclub that claimed 49 lives, many of them members of the LGBTQ+ community, is despicable.

And, Sen. Elizabeth Warren:

In the middle of a pandemic, the President wants to strip away health care & risk LGBTQ+ Americans' lives to pander to right-wing ideologues. This is hateful & wrong. Trump must protect LGBTQ+ rights, and if he won't, the Senate must act. https://t.co/hHIA53PZc8

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) June 13, 2020