From AU's Wall of Separation blog:
Healthcare professionals like Dayle Severns and Fred Leonard understand that a patient’s medical needs should always come first—not a healthcare provider’s religious beliefs.
“I worked in medicine for 20 years,” said Dayle from Concord, Virginia. “We didn't judge patients on any criteria other than what help they needed. That is all that a patient should ever be judged by.”
“As an emergency physician who provided care 24/7 to all comers for 30 years, I feel that any rule that would allow providers to pick and choose what care to provide and to whom to provide it based on their personal religious beliefs is morally and ethically reprehensible and bad medicine,” said Fred, who lives in Prescott, Arizona.
Dayle and Fred are just two of AU’s supporters and are among the thousands of people across the country who have already voiced objections to a new regulation proposed by the Trump administration. The rule could allow hospitals, insurance plans, healthcare providers, and even receptionists to use religion to turn away patients in need of care—no matter how much harm it would cause. Patients could even be denied life-saving care.
Religious freedom is fundamental, but so is the right to get the healthcare you need. No patient should lose access to critical healthcare because of a doctor’s or a hospital’s religious beliefs.
The Trump administration’s proposed rules would especially threaten women and the LGBTQ community. For example, no provider should withhold information about medical treatments from a woman who is miscarrying. And no transgender patient should be denied life-saving care because a doctor has a religious objection.
If you think that healthcare providers should always put patients first and that providers’ religious beliefs should never dictate patient care, we need you to tell the Trump administration today. Every federal government regulation must go through a public comment process, which means that you have an opportunity to tell the administration that you oppose using religion to discriminate and cause harm.
President Donald Trump is letting a handful of religious fundamentalist leaders set policy because they are the core of his remaining supporters. Their agenda threatens the rights of countless Americans. Last fall, federal agencies put out rules that would allow employers and universities to cite religion as justification for denying women access to birth control in their insurance plans. And because you made your voice heard, Americans United joined allies to deliver more than a half-million comments to HHS from people across the country who think that using religion to deny access to healthcare is wrong.
Americans United will continue to fight the Trump administration’s harmful proposals, but we need your help. Now is the time to speak out against the Trump administration’s latest attack on healthcare and the fundamental protections for religious freedom. The deadline to submit comments is Tuesday, March 27 and your voice matters!