Biden Administration Moves to Largely Rescind Trump’s Refusal of Care Rule
(Washington, D.C.) Today, the Biden administration has issued a proposal to rescind the most harmful parts of the Trump administration’s refusal of care rule, which gave broad new rights to health care workers to put their personal beliefs ahead of patient care. The Trump administration rule also allowed the government to take extreme measures against entities that did not comply with the rule.
The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) brought a lawsuit in federal court in New York challenging this rule, along with Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Democracy Forward Foundation, and the firm Covington & Burling in June 2019. In November 2019, the court struck down the rule in its entirety, concluding that the rule was unlawful and that the Trump administration’s justifications for the rule were patently false.
The following is a statement by Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of NWLC:
“Personal beliefs should never dictate the care a patient receives. We’re glad the Biden administration has moved to take down the Trump administration’s rule that greenlit discrimination and patients’ suffering. The administration’s action reaffirming that patient health must come first is crucial in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion and the resulting increase in refusals to provide care to patients across the country. It’s more important than ever to protect people seeking health care, including abortion, and to ensure their providers are able to give them the care they need.”
