The US Department of Health and Human Services issued a rule on Friday that would lift anti-discrimination protections under Obamacare for transgender people and women seeking abortions, drawing condemnation from Democratic lawmakers.
ADMINISTRATION HAS ALSO SOUGHT TO RESTRICT ACCESS TO ABORTION
The rule reverses some provisions of the Affordable Care Act passed during President Barack Obama’s administration, also known as Obamacare, that extended civil rights protections in healthcare to cover areas including gender identity and the termination of a pregnancy.
LGBTQ rights groups, Democratic lawmakers and Democratic-controlled states have decried efforts under the administration of Republican President Donald Trump to erode protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer citizens. One group said it planned to sue the administration over the new rule.
U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the decision a “shocking attack on the health and well-being of countless vulnerable communities, including women, LGBTQ individuals, and people of color.”
The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group, said it planned to “sue the Trump administration for exceeding their legal authority and attempting to remove basic health care protections from vulnerable communities including LGBTQ people.”