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LGBT patients are protected from discrimination thanks to the Affordable Care Act, but the Trump administration is working to end that, according to reports.
The Department of Health and Human Services has crafted guidance that will rescind protections for LGBT patients and women who've had abortions, according to The Hill.
President Obama's 2010 Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) included provisions that banned medical discrimination against LGBT patients and women who've had abortions. A religious group later sued to rescind the trans and women-specific provisions and won in court; a Texas judge then blocked the protections from going into effect. When Trump assumed office and homophobe Jeff Sessions took over as Attorney General earlier this year, the Department of Justice didn't appeal the ruling.
Now, comes word that the HHS created new guidance that omits the aformentioned protections, though it's not yet clear if it affects lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals, as well as transgender people and women who have terminated pregnancies. The DOJ is now reviewing the guidance and will send it to the Office of Management and Budget before it goes public.
"I don't think they [HHS] are going to have an easy time ... and we'll make sure they hear every objection and justify what they're doing," Joshua Block, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU, told The Hill.
Should the Trump administration move to allow medical discrimination against LGBT patients, it will be just the latest assault by the president against a group he pledged to support. He has already made it easier for federal contractors to discriminate against LGBT employees, revoked federal guidance on trans students, and banned all transgender people from serving in the military.
