Family Equality joins over 200,000 organizations and individuals in submitting detailed comments opposing the Trump administration’s proposed “Nondiscrimination in Health and Health Education Programs or Activities” rule.
Today, alongside 200,000 organizations and individuals, Family Equality submitted comments in opposition to a proposed rule by the Trump administration which attempts to strip health care from LGBTQ people and those accessing reproductive health services. Family Equality’s detailed comment letter aims to delay, diminish, and potentially eliminate the administration’s unlawful proposal to strip the healthcare nondiscrimination protections provided by the Affordable Care Act to LGBTQ people and people seeking reproductive healthcare services, including fertility treatment.
The rule proposed by the Trump administration jeopardizes the right of LGBTQ people to receive medical treatment. In particular, the rule would impact the ability of transgender people to access health care: 31% of transgender people said that it would be very difficult or impossible to get the health care they need at another hospital if they were turned away under this proposal.
The comments submitted by Family Equality highlight the terrible impact of health care discrimination on LGBTQ people and families. In numerous amicus briefs in federal court cases, Family Equality has documented the impact of these harms, and as a leading LGBTQ+ advocacy organization with decades of experience in federal case law, we see this proposal to eliminate protections against discrimination based on transgender status and sex stereotyping as a direct contradiction of clear Supreme Court precedent.
Family Equality also points out the terrible impact of health care service denials to LGBTQ youth in foster care. One in five youth in foster care identify as LGBTQ, and LGBTQ youth in foster care are more likely than their non-LGBTQ counterparts to be placed in residential facilities rather than with families. In such placements, there is often only one healthcare provider, so a refusal to provide an LGBTQ youth in foster care with reproductive, transition-related, or identity-affirming mental health care – refusals that the proposed rule would allow – would mean that these children simply would not receive the care they need.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ core mission is to “enhance and protect the health and well-being of all Americans … by providing for effective health and human services.”
Weakening protections and limiting program access by limiting nondiscrimination protections fundamentally runs contrary to this mission. Read our full comments here.