Comment By Dec. 19th on HHS Rule That Undermines Women’s and LGBTQ Rights

By MUUSJN on Friday, December 13th, 2019

Comment on Rule Before 12/19

Click HERE to Offer Your Comments

Tell Trump’s Health & Human Services what you think about a rule that would allow federally funded contractors to turn away people in need because of their religion,their sex, sexual orientation or gender identity.

Need a home delivered meal and you are gay? Sorry about that!
Need to enroll in Headstart and you are a gay couple? Sorry about that!
Need to buy birth control pills and you are a single mother? Sorry about that!
Are you Jewish and need a subsidized apartment? Sorry about that!

This rule violates basic American values that all persons have worth & should be treated with dignity.

HHS Rule Would Allow Discrimination vs. Women, LGBTQ People By Federal Contractors

Take Action!

The Trump administration has issued an alarming proposal that would give power to taxpayer funded programs through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to undermine human rights of women, people from LGBTQ communities and people from minority faiths. The new proposal would roll back protections that prohibit discrimination in HHS grant-funded programs based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion.

This new proposal comes as part of the Trump administration’s concerted effort to empower people who discriminate in the name of religion throughout the federal government. In HHS alone, there have been proposals to strip anti-discrimination protections in healthcare and to allow hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices to refuse care based on the provider’s religious beliefs. The administration is also seeking to allow discrimination in housing, in workplaces with federal contracts, on college campuses, and against immigrants who have disabilities.

But we can and we must fight back. The government is accepting public comments on the proposed rule until December 19. Click HERE to submit your own comment using the ACLU template, Explain in your own words why you oppose this discriminatory new rule.

Example of Where Our Resistance Paid Off

In January 2018, MUUSJN and other advocates urged the public to submit comments on a rule that would “protect conscience” in health care services. This rule would have allowed the religious right to exercise their objections to providing health care services e.g., abortions and birth control to women, while taking away the freedom of women and other people of faith. The final rule was adopted in May 2019, almost 17 months later. However, in November 2019 — before this rule became effective — a federal court vacated the rule so that it’s not being put into effect. While this case could come back to the courts, it show that giving comments paid off. It delayed implementation until courts could challenge a rule that clearly violated women’s rights.

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