Last week, Judge William Alsup of the US District Court for the Northern District of California joined federal courts in New York and Washington state in striking down the Denial of Care Rule put forth by the US Department of Health and Human Services earlier this year. Judge Alsup declared the rule, which would permit health care workers to decline to provide services, care, or information to patients due to the worker’s personal religious or moral beliefs, discriminatory and unconstitutional.
Facilities that provide health care could potentially lose critical federal funding under the proposed rule if they do not permit employees to deny services for these reasons. The rule has been characterized as one that would effectively deny reproductive and LGBTQ health care services to some of the country’s most vulnerable populations.
Additional Reading
Federal judge strikes down Trump administration’s religious exemption rule that would let doctors not help LGBTQ people, Newsweek, November 21, 2019
Order, City and County of San Francisco v. Alex M. Azar II, et al., filed, November 19, 2019
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