The administration of self-described “Catholic” Joe Biden will junk the Donald Trump administration’s 2019 rule that sought to protect the rights of healthcare workers to refuse to participate in abortions and transgender treatments that violate their faith beliefs.
In response to the Biden administration’s announcement, German-owned Politico reported Jacqueline Ayers, senior vice president of policy, organizing, and campaigns for Planned Parenthood, referred to the Trump rule as “discriminatory,” and added, “We look forward to seeing the details of the new rule and are excited about this step forward.”
The abortion industry giant, which is now also the second largest provider of transgender hormone treatments in the nation, joined with others in a lawsuit against the Trump-era “conscience” rule. An Obama-appointed federal judge ultimately struck down the rule in November 2019.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led the lawsuit challenge, argued the rule “illegally favored the personal views of health-care workers over the needs of patients and threatened to hobble the ability of state-run health-care facilities to provide effective care.”
“The refusal of care rule was an unlawful attempt to allow health care providers to openly discriminate and refuse to provide necessary health care to patients based on providers’ ‘religious beliefs or moral objections,’” James said.
Catholic League President Bill Donohue wrote that while Americans of faith still have “some two dozen federal rules on the books that provide protection for conscience rights,” Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services, led by Xavier Becerra, is “an ardent defender of abortion-on-demand” and “is leading the charge” against the Trump-era rule.
“The passion that Biden shows for killing unborn children is unparalleled,” Donohue added. “There have been pro-abortion zealots at the local and state level, and there are some in the Congress today, but never before in American history has there been a president more determined to force Catholic healthcare workers to violate their faith-based conscience.”
“Our ‘devout Catholic’ president wins first prize,” he asserted.
“Forcing physicians to go against their faith in service of Biden’s radical, late-term abortion agenda and wokeism is wrong,” Andrew Brennan, Republican National Committee director of faith communications, also said in a statement. “Voters will hold Biden and Democrats accountable for their extremism and egregious attacks on religious liberty this November.”
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Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Jacqueline Ayers” by Planned Parenthood. Background Photo “Planned Parenthood Building” by Fibonacci Blue. CC BY 2.0.
