Statement on HHS Conscience Rule

Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center Opposes Health Care License to Discriminate 

ALLENTOWN, PA — Today the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released the final version of their “Conscience Rule” which will provide a license to discriminate for healthcare and social services and will lead to denial of services for the LGBT population.

The following statement may be attributed to Adrian Shanker, Executive Director of Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center:

The HHS Office of Civil Rights is supposed to be working from the margins to ensure that those most at risk for inequitable healthcare treatment receive high-quality care. Instead, they have chosen to move forward with a mean-spirited, ill-begotten plan to invite providers to deny care to the LGBT community. This rule is antithetical to HHS health equity goals, included in HealthyPeople 2020, which seek to attain “the highest quality of health for all people.” The LGBT community experiences pervasive health disparities and numerous barriers to care due in part to healthcare bias and discrimination. This rule will make it worse. This rule will mean that LGBT people will rightfully fear mistreatment or denial of care from their providers. This rule will mean that LGBT people may not seek care they need. This rule will be especially harmful for transgender and gender non-binary community members. This rule will cause harm for LGBT people. The Trump Administration is wrong about healthcare and they wrong about religious freedom. Healthcare is a human right, enshrined in numerous international treatise including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Healthcare should be provided without discrimination to all who need it. Religious freedom is also a human right but this rule does not advance religious freedom, it allows a license to discriminate for providers whose job is to provide care for all. The facade of religious freedom should never be used to undermine the civil and human rights of others. 

About Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center: (www.bradburysullivancenter.org)

Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center provides arts, health, youth, and pride programs to strengthen and support the LGBT community across the Greater Lehigh Valley.