Trump anti-trans EO could deny health care to Democrats, unmarried vets

New rules would allow doctors at the U S Department of Veterans Affairs to deny care to unmarried veterans and Democrats at hospitals across the country pursuant to President Donald Trump s anti-trans executive order Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Leadership According to the Guardian which was first to statement the hospital guidelines on Monday they apply also to psychologists dentists and other providers allowing for individual staff to refuse care for veterans on the basis of characteristics not covered under federal law which proscribes discrimination on the basis of race color religion and sex Doctors can also be barred from working on VA hospitals based on their marital status political party affiliation or union activity per documents reviewed by the Guardian The agency validated changes to the rules came in response to Trump s executive order Specifically per the paper Until the up-to-date changes VA hospitals bylaws mentioned that medicinal staff could not discriminate against patients on the basis of race age color sex religion national origin politics marital status or disability in any employment matter Now several of those items including national origin politics and marital status have been removed from that list Similarly the bylaw on decisions regarding healthcare staff membership no longer forbids VA hospitals from discriminating against candidates for staff positions based on national origin sexual orientation marital status membership in a labor organization or lawful political party affiliation Experts warn that changes to the guidelines may lead to situations where for example doctors may question patients about whether they attended a rally for a political candidate or in backing of gay rights potentially denying care on those bases or because of the reasons given for seeking care such as cases where the subject may summary a rape or sexual assault Veterans warn impacts will be felt disproportionately by women and LGBTQ people The post Trump anti-trans EO could deny wellbeing care to Democrats unmarried vets appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta