Trump Admin Moves To Revoke Obama-era Transgender Policy

Trump Admin Moves To Revoke Obama-era Transgender Policy The proposed regulation, which the Health and Human Services Department released Friday, would exclude “gender identity” from being read into current sections of federal law that maintain that healthcare providers may not discriminate because of one’s sex. “In 2016, HHS issued a new rule that redefined discrimination ‘on the basis of sex’ to include termination of pregnancy and gender identity, which it defined as one’s internal sense of being ‘male, female, neither, or a combination of male and female,’” HHS’ Friday press release read. “When Congress prohibited sex discrimination, it did so according to the plain meaning of the term, and we are making our regulations conform,” Severino said. “The actions today are part and parcel of this administration’s efforts to erase LGBTQ people from federal regulations and to undermine nondiscrimination protections across the board,” Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, a senior health care attorney with LGBT civil rights group Lambda Legal, told Fox News. “Courts have been clear for decades that prohibitions on sex discrimination encompass discrimination against transgender individuals,” Louise Melling, deputy legal director with the American Civil Liberties Union, told Fox. Regardless, Severino says the goal of the rule is to keep HHS regulations in accordance with federal law, and that nothing will be lost in the way of enforcing current and future civil rights laws that prevent discrimination. Severino said it will save more than $3 billion in just five years.