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Critics of the Department of Health and Human Services' new division protested outside the department's office in Washington, D.C. on Thursday. (Photo: Americans United/@americansunited/Twitter)
'Keep Your Dogma Off My Healthcare!': Trump Empowers Nation's Doctors to Discriminate
"It shocks the conscience that our government would invite healthcare providers to discriminate against their patients, but this is exactly what HHS's new unit is designed to do."
Jan 18, 2018
Advocates for reproductive healthcare and LGBTQ rights came together on Thursday to condemn the creation of a new division in the Trump administration's Department of Health and Human Services to assist healthcare providers who refuse to treat patients based on religious or moral convictions--a move that legal advocates say "grants an illegal license to discriminate" and "will quite possibly cost lives."
"Religious freedom is not a license to discriminate, and is certainly no excuse to deny anyone healthcare."
--Catholics for Choice
Following reports about an overhaul of the department's Office of Civil Rights that raised alarm among advocates, the administration unveiled its "Conscience and Religious Freedom Division," which, in a statement, vowed to help HHS "more vigorously and effectively enforce existing laws" about "religious freedom."
Legal experts warn that "the wording on the rule creating the office appears to open the door for discrimination against patients because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or a whole host of other reasons," as National Women's Law Center senior counsel Kelli Garcia explained in the Washington Post.
"It shocks the conscience that our government would invite healthcare providers to discriminate against their patients, but this is exactly what HHS's new unit is designed to do," asserted Lambda Legal CEO Rachel B. Tiven, whose team published a detailed analysis of the rule.
Lambda Legal's experts said the rule "is designed to facilitate refusals of medically necessary care for individuals who are transgender or in a same-sex relationship, as well as the full range of reproductive health services.... In so doing, the new division will invite health professionals to misunderstand and to ignore governing law and medical standards, and to put patients in jeopardy and themselves at risk of legal liability."
Several rights groups issued warnings about the likely consequences of division's creation:
\u201cRT if you believe health care providers and workers MUST #PutPatientsFirst - not their religious or moral beliefs. This \u201cconscience\u201d division office at @HHSOCR is the first step in their #RxforDiscrimination under the guise of religion.\u201d— National Council of Jewish Women (@National Council of Jewish Women) 1516298700
\u201cThings that have happened before in the name of religious/moral beliefs:\n\u2192 Hospitals refusing to treat or refer someone who needs an abortion\n\u2192 Women suffering miscarriages being denied care they need\n\u2192 Health care providers refusing care to transgender people\u201d— National Women's Law Center (@National Women's Law Center) 1516293965
\u201cThis means those who refuse to provide birth control or abortion - basic elements of reproductive healthcare - will now be protected. \ud83d\ude21 https://t.co/g5vcMx5qKO #RxforDiscrimination #PutPatientsFirst\u201d— NARAL (@NARAL) 1516298194
Ahead of the announcement on Thursday, opponents rallied outside the HHS building in Washington, D.C. and denounced the Trump administration for encouraging healthcare providers "to deny life-saving care in favor of a 'prescription for discrimination.'" They shared updates on social media with the hashtags #RxForDiscrimination and #PutPatientsFirst.
\u201cToday we are outside of HHS to say #PutPatientsFirst. Religious freedom is not a license to discriminate, and is certainly no excuse to deny anyone healthcare. #RxforDiscrimination\u201d— Catholics for Choice (@Catholics for Choice) 1516289301
This is not the first time LGBTQ organizations, legal rights groups, and reproductive rights advocates have joined together to fight the Trump administration's "religious freedom" agenda. They also rallied outside the White House in October to oppose efforts to limit women's access to contraception and a Trump Justice Department memo that declared employers could use religious or moral convictions as a defense against discrimination allegations.
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Advocates for reproductive healthcare and LGBTQ rights came together on Thursday to condemn the creation of a new division in the Trump administration's Department of Health and Human Services to assist healthcare providers who refuse to treat patients based on religious or moral convictions--a move that legal advocates say "grants an illegal license to discriminate" and "will quite possibly cost lives."
"Religious freedom is not a license to discriminate, and is certainly no excuse to deny anyone healthcare."
--Catholics for Choice
Following reports about an overhaul of the department's Office of Civil Rights that raised alarm among advocates, the administration unveiled its "Conscience and Religious Freedom Division," which, in a statement, vowed to help HHS "more vigorously and effectively enforce existing laws" about "religious freedom."
Legal experts warn that "the wording on the rule creating the office appears to open the door for discrimination against patients because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or a whole host of other reasons," as National Women's Law Center senior counsel Kelli Garcia explained in the Washington Post.
"It shocks the conscience that our government would invite healthcare providers to discriminate against their patients, but this is exactly what HHS's new unit is designed to do," asserted Lambda Legal CEO Rachel B. Tiven, whose team published a detailed analysis of the rule.
Lambda Legal's experts said the rule "is designed to facilitate refusals of medically necessary care for individuals who are transgender or in a same-sex relationship, as well as the full range of reproductive health services.... In so doing, the new division will invite health professionals to misunderstand and to ignore governing law and medical standards, and to put patients in jeopardy and themselves at risk of legal liability."
Several rights groups issued warnings about the likely consequences of division's creation:
\u201cRT if you believe health care providers and workers MUST #PutPatientsFirst - not their religious or moral beliefs. This \u201cconscience\u201d division office at @HHSOCR is the first step in their #RxforDiscrimination under the guise of religion.\u201d— National Council of Jewish Women (@National Council of Jewish Women) 1516298700
\u201cThings that have happened before in the name of religious/moral beliefs:\n\u2192 Hospitals refusing to treat or refer someone who needs an abortion\n\u2192 Women suffering miscarriages being denied care they need\n\u2192 Health care providers refusing care to transgender people\u201d— National Women's Law Center (@National Women's Law Center) 1516293965
\u201cThis means those who refuse to provide birth control or abortion - basic elements of reproductive healthcare - will now be protected. \ud83d\ude21 https://t.co/g5vcMx5qKO #RxforDiscrimination #PutPatientsFirst\u201d— NARAL (@NARAL) 1516298194
Ahead of the announcement on Thursday, opponents rallied outside the HHS building in Washington, D.C. and denounced the Trump administration for encouraging healthcare providers "to deny life-saving care in favor of a 'prescription for discrimination.'" They shared updates on social media with the hashtags #RxForDiscrimination and #PutPatientsFirst.
\u201cToday we are outside of HHS to say #PutPatientsFirst. Religious freedom is not a license to discriminate, and is certainly no excuse to deny anyone healthcare. #RxforDiscrimination\u201d— Catholics for Choice (@Catholics for Choice) 1516289301
This is not the first time LGBTQ organizations, legal rights groups, and reproductive rights advocates have joined together to fight the Trump administration's "religious freedom" agenda. They also rallied outside the White House in October to oppose efforts to limit women's access to contraception and a Trump Justice Department memo that declared employers could use religious or moral convictions as a defense against discrimination allegations.
Advocates for reproductive healthcare and LGBTQ rights came together on Thursday to condemn the creation of a new division in the Trump administration's Department of Health and Human Services to assist healthcare providers who refuse to treat patients based on religious or moral convictions--a move that legal advocates say "grants an illegal license to discriminate" and "will quite possibly cost lives."
"Religious freedom is not a license to discriminate, and is certainly no excuse to deny anyone healthcare."
--Catholics for Choice
Following reports about an overhaul of the department's Office of Civil Rights that raised alarm among advocates, the administration unveiled its "Conscience and Religious Freedom Division," which, in a statement, vowed to help HHS "more vigorously and effectively enforce existing laws" about "religious freedom."
Legal experts warn that "the wording on the rule creating the office appears to open the door for discrimination against patients because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or a whole host of other reasons," as National Women's Law Center senior counsel Kelli Garcia explained in the Washington Post.
"It shocks the conscience that our government would invite healthcare providers to discriminate against their patients, but this is exactly what HHS's new unit is designed to do," asserted Lambda Legal CEO Rachel B. Tiven, whose team published a detailed analysis of the rule.
Lambda Legal's experts said the rule "is designed to facilitate refusals of medically necessary care for individuals who are transgender or in a same-sex relationship, as well as the full range of reproductive health services.... In so doing, the new division will invite health professionals to misunderstand and to ignore governing law and medical standards, and to put patients in jeopardy and themselves at risk of legal liability."
Several rights groups issued warnings about the likely consequences of division's creation:
\u201cRT if you believe health care providers and workers MUST #PutPatientsFirst - not their religious or moral beliefs. This \u201cconscience\u201d division office at @HHSOCR is the first step in their #RxforDiscrimination under the guise of religion.\u201d— National Council of Jewish Women (@National Council of Jewish Women) 1516298700
\u201cThings that have happened before in the name of religious/moral beliefs:\n\u2192 Hospitals refusing to treat or refer someone who needs an abortion\n\u2192 Women suffering miscarriages being denied care they need\n\u2192 Health care providers refusing care to transgender people\u201d— National Women's Law Center (@National Women's Law Center) 1516293965
\u201cThis means those who refuse to provide birth control or abortion - basic elements of reproductive healthcare - will now be protected. \ud83d\ude21 https://t.co/g5vcMx5qKO #RxforDiscrimination #PutPatientsFirst\u201d— NARAL (@NARAL) 1516298194
Ahead of the announcement on Thursday, opponents rallied outside the HHS building in Washington, D.C. and denounced the Trump administration for encouraging healthcare providers "to deny life-saving care in favor of a 'prescription for discrimination.'" They shared updates on social media with the hashtags #RxForDiscrimination and #PutPatientsFirst.
\u201cToday we are outside of HHS to say #PutPatientsFirst. Religious freedom is not a license to discriminate, and is certainly no excuse to deny anyone healthcare. #RxforDiscrimination\u201d— Catholics for Choice (@Catholics for Choice) 1516289301
This is not the first time LGBTQ organizations, legal rights groups, and reproductive rights advocates have joined together to fight the Trump administration's "religious freedom" agenda. They also rallied outside the White House in October to oppose efforts to limit women's access to contraception and a Trump Justice Department memo that declared employers could use religious or moral convictions as a defense against discrimination allegations.
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LATEST NEWS
'We're Turning Into a Dictatorship': Trump Tariffs Seen as Ploy to Further Consolidate Power
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy called President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs "a political weapon designed to collapse our democracy."
Apr 07, 2025
Analysts puzzling over the bizarre formula the Trump administration used to calculate its country-by-country tariff rates are wasting their time, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said in a response to the American president that has gone viral in recent days as global markets continue to nosedive.
"It's not economic policy, it's not trade policy," Murphy (D-Conn.) said in remarks recorded after Trump announced the sweeping tariffs last week. "It's a political weapon designed to collapse our democracy."
While President Donald Trump's universal tariffs on imports make no sense as an effort to rectify the failures of the status quo trade regime and bring back offshored U.S. jobs, they are comprehensible when viewed as "a tool to try to compel pledges of loyalty, this time from companies and industries in the United States," Murphy argued.
"You have to understand that everything Donald Trump is doing is in service of staying in power forever—either him or his family or his handpicked successors," the Democratic senator continued. "He's trying to destroy our democracy."
Murphy contended that the president designed the tariffs to be so widespread that corporations across private industry would have to come to the White House and "make an agreement with Trump in which he gives them tariff relief in exchange for a pledge of political loyalty."
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Politico reported late last week that businesses across corporate America "fear Trump's wrath" and are thus declining to criticize the president's tariff policies even as they wreak havoc worldwide and threaten to spark a devastating recession.
"There is zero incentive for any company or brand to be remotely critical of this administration," one unnamed public affairs operative told Politico. "It destroys your ability to work with the White House and advance your policies, period."
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Murphy is hardly alone in seeing Trump's tariffs as an instrument of power consolidation.
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"As Trump declares emergency after emergency to justify his reign of terror, he's simultaneously eliminating America's capacity to respond to real emergencies," Reich wrote. "Make no mistake about what’s really going on here. While the United States has plenty of real problems to deal with, Trump is ignoring them to manufacture the fake emergencies he needs to further enlarge and centralize his power."
One analyst, Zack Beauchamp of Vox, argued the tariffs are more a symptom of the decline of U.S. democracy rather than a cause of it.
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Trump Calls Tariff Madness a 'Beautiful Thing to Behold' as Global Markets Crater
"If the 4.8% fall in S&P 500 futures at the Asian opening isn't reversed, then it's on course for its worst three-day selloff since the Black Monday crash of October 1987."
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U.S. President Donald Trump late Sunday openly embraced the global chaos sparked by his sweeping tariffs, careening headlong into a potentially catastrophic trade war as worldwide financial markets plummeted and American retirees began to panic.
In a post on his social media platform, Trump declared that his tariffs are "already in effect, and a beautiful thing to behold."
"Some day people will realize that Tariffs, for the United States of America, are a very beautiful thing!" Trump wrote as recent retirees and people near retirement expressed fear and astonishment at the swift damage the president's policy decisions have done to their investment accounts.
One retiree, a 68-year-old former occupational health worker in New Jersey, told NBC News that she is "just kind of stunned, and with so much money in the market, we just sort of have to hope we have enough time to recover."
"What we've been doing is trying to enjoy the time that we have, but you want to be able to make it last," the retiree, identified as Paula, said on Friday. "I have no confidence here."
Trump's post doubling down on his tariff regime came as Asian markets cratered and U.S. stock futures opened bright red, signaling that Monday will bring another broad sell-off in equities. One of Trump's top economic advisers claimed in a Sunday interview that the president is not intentionally crashing the stock market, even as Trump—returning from a weekend golf outing in Florida—characterized the tariffs as "medicine."
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Though the stock market and the economy are not synonymous, economist Josh Bivens recently noted that they are currently "mirroring each other: Stock market weakness is reflecting broader economic weakness."
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Apr 06, 2025
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