During Obama’s administration, the section 1557 provision was instituted, which provided protection to the LGBTQ community and women from discrimination in healthcare.The provision stated that services couldn’t be denied to patients, nor could they be intimidated by a medical professional, based on their gender or sexual orientation. The rule was put into place due to America’s history of discrimination against the LGBTQ community in the medical field.
Today, Politico reports that the health department is finalizing its “rewrite” of the provision, which many advocates and healthcare professionals say will surely roll back anti-discrimination policies. Spearheading the campaign is Roger Severino, the head of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights. Severino is a Christian fanatical and devout homophobe. Severino was avidly against Obama’s anti-discrimination policies, even before he became head of the Office for Civil Rights (Yes, a homophobic and transphobic person is leading the Office for Civil Rights). In fact, his anti-LGBTQ agenda is so well known that he was even the focal point of an episode of Patriot Act on Netflix.
Rolling back protections during a global pandemic that has infected over 2 million people is criminal. Because of America’s poor leadership and broken healthcare system, we have become the global epicenter of the outbreak. Trump and his administration must be held accountable for their atrocities.
