The so-called conscience rule will encourage discrimination against women and the LGBT community, according to complaints. (Photo: Shutterstock)
President Donald Trump's administration was sued by almost two dozen states and cities over a federal rule allowing businesses and individuals to refuse health-care services based on their religious beliefs or moral convictions.
The so-called conscience rule will encourage discrimination against women and the LGBT community by limiting access to contraceptive care and abortion as well as services required by transgender Americans, according to complaints filed Tuesday in federal courts in New York and California.
Related: New HHS division to focus on moral, religious objections
“A war is being waged on access to health care across our country from Alabama to Texas to Washington D.C., where once again the president and vice president are issuing illegal rules that use health care as a political weapon while risking American lives,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, said in a statement announcing his lawsuit.
New York Attorney General Letitia James also sued, along with a group of states and cities that include Pennsylvania, Hawaii and Chicago, claiming residents will be put at risk. She said the new rule will allow ambulance drivers, emergency-room doctors and customer-service representatives at insurance companies to refuse care in violation of patients' constitutional rights.
The Department of Health and Human Services has said the rule change is needed to protect the religious freedom of employees who may object to some health-care procedures. It's part of a broader cultural clash between the religious right, who helped get Trump elected, and progressives who've been challenging his agenda in court.
“The federal government is giving health care providers free license to openly discriminate and refuse care to patients –- a gross misinterpretation of religious freedom that will have devastating consequences on communities throughout the country,” James said in a statement.
The plaintiffs say they risk losing billions of dollars in federal health-care funding if states and municipalities fail to comply with the change.
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