Press Releases
10/23/2020
Attorney General Tong Fights Trump Administration Push to Enable Health Care Discrimination
(Hartford, CT) — Attorney General William Tong today joined a coalition of 22 attorneys general in fighting the Trump Administration’s attempts to make it easier for health care providers to refuse necessary and desired health coverage to individuals on the basis of the provider’s “religious beliefs or moral convictions.”
In an amicus brief filed in support of the states of California and Washington in their lawsuits brought against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the coalition strongly opposes the Trump Administration’s ‘Refusal-of-Care’ rule.
“The courts have rejected this rule time after time and affirmed that providers should not be allowed to deny someone health care because of their personal religious beliefs or so-called moral convictions,” Attorney General Tong said. “Allowing health care providers to discriminate based on religious objections will disproportionately affect women and LGBTQ+ and will disrupt care for an untold number of Americans. This rule is unconscionable and even more indefensible as we continue to battle a global pandemic.”
In May 2019, the Trump Administration introduced a final rule that would vastly and unreasonably expand the ability of health care providers to deny patients access to certain lawful and medically needed procedures, services, and information. The rule would disproportionately impact women and members of the LGBTQ+ community and threaten to harm countless patients by disrupting their access to medically necessary care. It also places billions in critical federal health care funding that Congress has appropriated to the states at risk.
The coalition, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, argues that the rule’s definition of “discrimination” is inconsistent with statute and is contrary to the Administrative Procedures Act and that HHS acted arbitrarily and capriciously in promulgating the rule.
Every federal court that has considered the rule has agreed that it is not authorized by law, and has accordingly vacated the rule in full, including the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington. In May 2019, Attorney General Tong joined a separate coalition of 23 states and localities in filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s ‘Refusal-of-Care’ rule in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. In November, the coalition won that case in federal court.
Joining Attorneys General Tong and James in filing this amicus brief are the attorneys general of Colorado, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.
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