Obama mandates hospitals must perform abortions, sex change procedures or lose federal funding
After stirring up a controversy with the announcement that public schools should allow transgender in women's bathrooms or they will lose federal funding, Pres. Barack Obama gave a similar threat on the same day to healthcare institutions receiving government funds.
The White House announced that healthcare institutions must perform abortions and gender transition services, or their federal funding will be cut, according to LifeSiteNews.
On May 13, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the final rule for Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which mandates such hospitals to do abortions and sex changes. If they refuse to comply, not only will their funds be cut, the Department of Justice may also take legal action against them.
The final rule allegedly promotes equity and seeks to protect "some of the populations that have been most vulnerable to discrimination in the health care context." It covers all health programs or activities that receive federal funding, health programs administered by HHS and "health insurance marketplaces and issuers that participate in those marketplaces."
Groups that advocate religious freedom condemned the rule, saying it lacks constitutionality and it forces abortion and gender identity upon hospitals and doctors.
Breitbart News legal editor Ken Klukowski said that the word "sex" in Section 1557 used to refer to something other than biological sex is "laughable."
Klukowski also said that the rule is "an unconstitutional assault on the First Amendment that the Obama administration is forcing their rejection of biological fact onto people whose faith teaches that 'man' and 'woman' refer to what they have meant for thousands of years, and that God purposefully created them that way."
The Family Research Council (FRC) urges Congress to remedy the situation. David Christensen, FRC vice president of government affairs, said the final rule redefines sex discrmination by including abortion and gender identity.
"This intolerant and unjust rule, in turn, threatens to force health care providers to participate in and perform services that substantially violate their consciences," Christensen said.
