According to the New York Times, the Trump administration announced on Thursday that it was expanding religious freedom protections for doctors, nurses and other health care workers who don’t want to perform abortions and gender reassignments surgeries.
This new ‘protection’ is meant to protect religious health providers so they don’t have to violate their religious beliefs for a procedure… Even though their jobs are to perform procedures and take care of their patients.
Civil rights, gay rights and abortion rights groups, as well as some medical organizations, are disturbed by this move, and recognize it for what it is: An attempt to legalize and legitimize discrimination under the guise of religious freedom.
Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the senior Democrat on the Senate health committee, said the administration was using the civil rights office as “a tool to restrict access to health care for people who are transgender and women.”
The Trump administration announced a new division that will prioritize religious objections over the health and civil rights of women, transgender people, and others.
Medical standards, not religious belief, should guide medical care.https://t.co/XjQMNj40FR
— ACLU (@ACLU) January 18, 2018
This protection will most directly impact women and trans people. Doctors might deny fertility treatments to lesbian couples, pharmacists can refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control, trans people could lose access to hormone therapy and gender affirmation surgeries.
Show America that this is not okay. Show up to the Women’s Marches across the world tomorrow to stand up against this harmful administration.
To read more about the religious freedoms protections, check out this New York Times piece.
To find out about a Women’s March in your area, refer to the Women’s March website.
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