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For Immediate Release
Contact: media@aclu.org

ACLU Statement on Proposed Rule by Department of Health and Human Services

The Department of Health and Human Services proposed a new rule today that would dramatically expand the ability of health care institutions and workers to refuse to provide medical care. The rule was introduced one day after the agency announced its creation of a "Division of Conscience and Religious Freedom."

Louise Melling, deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union, had the following reaction:

WASHINGTON

The Department of Health and Human Services proposed a new rule today that would dramatically expand the ability of health care institutions and workers to refuse to provide medical care. The rule was introduced one day after the agency announced its creation of a "Division of Conscience and Religious Freedom."

Louise Melling, deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union, had the following reaction:

"This is an administration that time and again works to endanger the ability of patients to get the health care they need. With this rule, the administration shows its true colors -- it believes religious freedom means the right to discriminate and to harm. It puts patients last -- a betrayal of the mission of the Department of Health and Health Services."

The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.

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