On November 6 a federal district judge in New York struck down a Trump Administration rule that embraced denying access to health care under the guise of promoting health care providers’ rights to follow their “conscience.” A May 2019 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rule scheduled to take effect on November 22 attempted to broaden the reach of federal laws protecting health care workers who discriminate or refuse care to patients on religious or moral grounds— most often but not only abortion, contraception, or gender transition care, and to expand HHS’s authority to withhold all federal funds to institutions that don’t comply with their workers’ objections.
The National Women’s Law Center noted that the rule affecting 600,000 health centers would have allowed even health care workers not directly involved in patient care to “put their personal beliefs ahead of people’s health, even in emergencies.” Many state and local governments and reproductive rights organizations challenged the rule in federal cases in New York and California. During the New York oral argument, the Justice Department had conceded that an if an ambulance driver with objections to abortion learned during the ride that the patient was going to the hospital to terminate an ectopic pregnancy, an employer who forced the driver to continue the ride would violate the rule.
On November 6, Judge Paul Engelmayer granted a summary judgment invalidating the rule on several grounds: the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) did not have legal authority to adopt the rules, the rules were contrary to federal employment discrimination and emergency medical treatment statutes, and the rules violated the Administrative Procedure Act for several reasons (for example, the evidence didn’t support the purported reason for the rule: that health care provider complaints about having to perform certain services had sharply increased). To completely withhold federal funds appropriated by Congress also violates constitutional separation of powers and the Spending Clause.
A Planned Parenthood leader summed it up: “Today, the Trump administration has been blocked from providing legal cover for discrimination.…The administration acted outside its authority and made false claims to try to justify this rule. This rule put patients’ needs last and threatened their ability to access potentially lifesaving health care.” – Alexis McGill Johnson, Acting President and CEO of plaintiff Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
– Charlie Mitchell, NoHLA Senior Staff Attorney