Call to action

[kengr]

The US department of health & Human Services has now published the rule (not "draft", rule) that will take effect in 30 days unless enough people protest.

This rule says, in essence, that any hospital, clinic, etc receiving government funding must allow *any* employee to choose to not perform some or all of their duties if they think doing so would violate their conscince.

It's obviously aimed at making it harder to get abortions, but it'll also affect GLBT folks and who knows how many others.

Check here for more details and tip[s on how to try to stop it.

Comments

[ebonhost.livejournal.com]

I did notice that most women seem to be focussed on the abortion (and possible lead-in to birth control) part of it, and have completely missed the sterilization part of it, which should be equally alarming. It is -already- next to impossible to get sterilized as a man or a woman under a certain age because of the insistence that someone might change their mind and decide to spawn. (I decided at 14, long before I knew I was trans, that I never wanted to have children. I have never changed my mind.)

Now granted, bottom surgery involves going to a specialist who has gone into the field because they desire to help trans people, but there's nothing to stop random doctors from refusing to do hysterectomies that lead to sex-change operations, or breast removal. This would allow them to effectively declare that we have no right to challenge that 'God' made us the wrong gender, or that anyone should be able to remove the body's fertility because we might be denying some non-existent future child a chance.

This is just a bad idea all around. If these people don't want to help people, why the hell are they in the medical profession to begin with?

[kengr]

If these people don't want to help people, why the hell are they in the medical profession to begin with?

Honestly? For the past few years, it seems that folks have been going into those fields *specifically* so they can interfere this way.

But near as I can tell, it goes even further than you think... Don't like poor folks, think them being poor or sick is "God's will", then you can refuse to treat them.

Basically, anything that can't be counted as discrimination under the civil rights laws (and a lot of things that *can*) is allowable under this.

[ebonhost.livejournal.com]

Ugh, yeah, it can just keep snowballing. This is seriously nasty. *sighs*