by Eric Lendrum
The Biden Administration’s Department Health and Human Services (HHS) has confirmed that it plans to eliminate a policy implemented during the Trump Administration that allows healthcare workers to cite religious or moral beliefs when seeking exemptions from performing certain acts in the line of duty.
According to Politico, a spokesperson for HHS said that “we are in the rulemaking process” when it comes to the policy in question. The conscience exemption, first announced in 2018 and fully implemented in 2019, allows medical professionals to refuse to perform certain operations, including abortions and “gender transition” surgeries, if such acts violate their moral or religious values.
The decision was celebrated by far-left pro-abortion groups that had previously sued the Trump Administration over the rule in question. Leila Abolfazli, spokeswoman for the National Women’s Law Center, said “there is so much to unravel,” and that she was “encouraged that they have been working through all these pieces.”
“It’s imperative that the Biden-Harris administration revoke this discriminatory policy and help ensure people can access the health care and information they need when they need it,” said Jacqueline Ayers, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood. “We look forward to seeing the details of the new rule and are excited about this step forward.”
Such action from the federal level comes as multiple Republican-led states pass numerous laws to crack down on abortion and transgender surgeries, among other controversial and harmful procedures. Although such laws are widely popular with the American people, the Left denounces such measures as violating certain “rights” with regards to so-called “transgender” people, or the “right” for women to kill their unborn children.
Legalized nationwide abortion could come to an end this summer, as the Supreme Court prepares its decision in the landmark case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case out of Mississippi after the state passed a 15-week ban on abortion. If the court ultimately rules in Mississippi’s favor, then the legal precedent first set by Roe v. Wade in 1973 would be overturned, and the issue of abortion would be returned to a state-by-state basis.
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Eric Lendrum reports for American Greatness.
