The Department of Health and Human Services has finalized a rule that repeals Obamacare policy relating to access to abortion and gender identity.
The new rule will define “sex discrimination” in terms of a person’s biological sex, rather than gender. The Obamacare rule defined “sex discrimination” as including discrimination regarding gender identity, which the rule defined as “one’s internal sense of gender, which may be male, female, neither, or a combination of male and female.”
Anyone who requires a list to define their gender needs help — badly.
Under the new policy, hospitals can decline to perform “gender transition surgery” as well as abortion if it conflicts with their religious beliefs.
Not surprisingly, liberal heads were exploding all over the place.
Democrats decried the rule change with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo calling it “repugnant.” “That this action was taken on the anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting — an act of domestic terror targeting the LGBTQ community — and amid a global pandemic is grotesque,” Cuomo said in a statement.
It may be popular to rewrite history to scrub radical Muslim terrorists from events, but Cuomo needs to get a grip on reality. The Pulse nightclub shooter was a fanatical jihadist.
Omar Mir Seddique had been investigated for terrorism even before the massacre.
Before the shooting, he had been investigated for connections to terrorism by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2013 and 2014. During that period, he was placed on the Terrorist Screening Database, but was subsequently removed. In a call to 9-1-1 during the shooting, Mateen identified himself as “Mujahideen”, “Islamic Soldier”, and “Soldier of God” and pledged his allegiance multiple times to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who at the time was the leader of the militant jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. He said the shooting was “triggered” by an airstrike in Iraq that killed Abu Wahib, an ISIL commander, six weeks before.
In the end, the rule change is not that big of a deal. Transgender people will still have protections under other laws, as will women who desire an abortion. The biggest change is that if people object to performing those medical procedures on religious grounds, they can refuse.
Religious freedom groups were pleased with the new rule.
“No doctor should be forced to perform a procedure she believes would harm a patient,” said Luke Goodrich, vice president and senior counsel at Becket. “The new rule will help ensure that all patients receive top-notch care without forcing doctors to perform potentially harmful procedures in violation of their religious beliefs and medical judgment.”
Mary Beth Waddell, who serves as the Senior Legislative Assistant for Family Research Council, released the following statement: “The Department of Health and Human Services has corrected a dangerous Obamacare rule that distorted key portions of the legislation to the detriment of both medical professionals and patients.”
One change in the rule will save hospitals a couple of billion dollars.
But the rule does nix a regulation requiring entities to send patients and customers documents and “explanation of benefits” forms in multiple languages. “These expensive notices have not generally proven effective at accomplishing their purpose of providing meaningful language access to healthcare,” an HHS statement explained, which it says would save $2.9 billion over 5 years.
Is it really necessary to translate these forms into Turkish? Or Urdu? It’s not necessary. English is the power language — the language of business, the language of science, the language of diplomacy. To encourage people not to learn how to speak it hurts their ability to make their way in our society. There are thousands of languages and dialects being used today. Why not translate the forms and documents into all of them? It’s crazy and illogical.
The left doesn’t like any change to Obamacare because they see it as holy writ. It’s sacrilege to alter Obama’s “signature achievement.”
In truth, the 900-page law passed by Congress in 2011 was badly written and confusing and the regulations written to implement the Affordable Care Act strayed radically from the original intent and purpose of Congress.
One would hope that Republicans would be able to repeal the rest of it in the next few years.
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