Above The Law

Q: When doesn’t a law apply to you but to everyone else?
A: When you say the magic phrase… “It’s against my religion.”

The Trump administration wants to allow healthcare providers to ignore the non-discrimination laws just by saying that it violates my religious beliefs. Back in August Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed to change the interpretation of ACA Section 1557 to not include us, but that wasn’t the only attack on us they also wanted to exempt healthcare workers from non-discrimination laws and a lawsuit   was filed blocking HHS from doing that and the judge just ruled on that lawsuit.

A judge blocks the Trump administration’s ‘conscience rule’ for health care workers
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
By Larry Neumeister Associated Press
November 6, 2019

NEW YORK — A federal judge on Wednesday struck down a new Trump administration rule that could open the way for more health care workers to refuse to participate in abortions or other procedures on moral or religious grounds.

U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said the U.S. Health and Human Services Department overstepped its authority and went beyond existing law in issuing the so-called “conscience rule.” He also said that the measure could be costly, burdensome and damaging to emergency care and that the whole rationale for the rule was based on a lie.

He said the department’s claim that there was a significant increase in complaints about workers being forced to violate their conscience was “flatly untrue.” The HHS rule, he said, is a classic “solution in search of a problem.”
[…]
Nineteen states, the District of Columbia, three local governments, health organizations and others had sued to block the rule from taking effect Nov. 22, arguing that it would be discriminatory and would interfere with people’s access to health care.
[…]
The new HHS rule broadens the list of health care personnel who can refuse to participate, expanding it to those who counsel, refer, train or make arrangements for a medical procedure.

It also restricts the ability of employers to inquire about employees’ objections and broadens the definition of health care entities to include pharmacists and medical laboratories.

In other words a person who hates Muslims or blacks could refuse to treat or care for them just by saying the magic phrase… “It’s against my religion.” and the employer can do nothing about.

What does religious organizations think about the ruling?

Federal judge blocks conscience protection rule for healthcare workers
Catholic News Agency

New York City, N.Y., Nov 6, 2019 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- A federal judge in New York overturned the Trump administration’s conscience protection rule for health care workers on Wednesday.

The “Protecting Statutory Conscience Rights in Health Care” rule was finalized by the Department of Health and Human Services in May and set to go into effect on Nov. 22. It required that federally-funded organizations be certified compliant with more than two dozen existing statutory conscience protections in health care. These protections would allow health care professionals to opt out of performing or assisting in procedures they are morally opposed to, such as abortions and gender-transition surgeries.
[…]
“This decision leaves health care professionals across America vulnerable to being forced to perform, facilitate, or refer for procedures that violate their conscience,” said Stephanie Taub, Senior Counsel for First Liberty Institute, a legal organization that works to protect religious freedom.

So they think it is okay to walk away from a dying patient just because they are trans, or Muslim, or black and the Trump administration thinks that is okay.

---

Bishops Applaud Trump Administration Move to End LGBTQ Protections in Healthcare, Social Services
New Ways Ministry
November 4, 2019

Top U.S. bishops have voiced their support for the Trump administration’s latest move to vacate federal anti-LGBTQ non-discrimination regulations again, this time involving adoption and foster care services and life-saving healthcare programs.

Late last week, Secretary Alex Azar of the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a shift in that agency’s policies that would end LGBTQ protections in its grant programs. Under President Barack Obama, sexual orientation and gender identity were included in HHS regulations, but these terms would now be stripped from agency non-discrimination policies. The Washington Post reported:

“The most immediate impact would likely be on the nation’s $7 billion federally funded child-welfare system, including foster care and adoption programs . . . But the proposed rule would also apply to other HHS grants, including those for HIV and sexually transmitted disease prevention, other public health initiatives, health education, prekindergarten programs and more . . . HHS said on Friday it would begin immediate enforcement of the nondiscrimination change.”

In lockstep with the Trump administration, three chairmen at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released a joint statement applauding the HHS change. The bishops, Venice’s Frank Dewane for the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, Worcester’s Robert McMcManus for the Committee for Religious Liberty, and Lincoln’s James Conley for the Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, stated, in part:

“We commend the Administration for acting to change a 2016 regulation that threatened to shut out faith-based social service providers, namely adoption and foster care agencies that respect a child’s right to a mother and a father. To restrict faith-based organizations’ work by infringing on religious freedom – as the 2016 rule threatened to do – is unfair and serves no one, especially the children in need of these services. We are alarmed and saddened that state and local government agencies in multiple jurisdictions have already succeeded in shutting down Catholic adoption and foster care agencies as a result of their Catholic beliefs. At a time when over 400,000 children are in foster care, we need to take steps to increase – not decrease – their opportunities to be placed with safe and loving families.”

You know they talk only about LGBTQ protections but nowhere in the proposed regulations do they say anything to limit it just to us and in the Bible you can just about find anything to be against… other religions, blacks, single women, interracial marriages… you can even find something to justify slavery.