President Trump is very concerned about my religious and moral objections to providing appropriate medical care to those who need it.
According to the Washington Post:
[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Show up at the pharmacy bearing Nazi tattoos? Sorry, can’t fill your prescription for antibiotics.[/pullquote]
The Trump administration will create a new conscience and religious freedom division within the Health and Human Services Department to ease the way for doctors, nurses and other medical professionals to opt out of providing services that violate their moral or religious beliefs.
Specific details are scheduled to be announced Thursday. But the new policy appears to be broad and aimed at protecting health-care workers who cite those reasons for refusing to take part in abortions, treat transgender patients or participate in other types of care.
Fantastic! I say we start by withholding medical care from bigots, including the president himself.
Conservative groups praised the move Wednesday as upholding providers’ right to religious liberty.
“We think the Trump administration should set an example in enforcing the multiple conscience laws that have been passed since the 1970s to prevent the government from punishing people who have objections to participating in abortions,” said David Christensen, vice president of government affairs at the Family Research Council.
Religious liberty? What could be more religious than refusing to care for those who won’t uphold the Ten Commandments — like Trump himself.
Commandment 7-9 are quite explicit:
Thou shall not commit adultery.
Thou shall not steal.
Thou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Trump has boasted about committing adultery, is known for refusing to pay vendors and began his political career by lying about President Obama’s birth certificate. Surely, by Trump’s reasoning, doctors have every right to refuse to treat him. He’s a religious abomination!
And how about moral beliefs? Bigotry of any kind is immoral. You’re supposed to love thy neighbor as theyself. It stands to reason that doctors, nurses and pharmacists should have the right to withhold medical care, even life saving medical care, from bigots and their families:
Show up at the pharmacy bearing Nazi tattoos? Sorry, can’t fill your prescription for antibiotics.
Bleeding from a gash in your face after a fight at a white supremacist rally? Stitch it up yourself.
Need a liver transplant after years of hard drinking with your Klan buddies. Sucks to be you because we’re not putting bigots on the transplant list.
Wait, what? The new policy is only supposed to allow providers to deny care to gay or transgender people and to those who request birth control or abortion? That’s not what it’s backers claim:
“President Trump promised the American people that his administration would vigorously uphold the rights of conscience and religious freedom,” HHS Acting Secretary Eric Hargan said in a release Wednesday night. “That promise is being kept today. The Founding Fathers knew that a nation that respects conscience rights is more diverse and more free, and OCR’s new division will help make that vision a reality.”
See: rights of conscience and religious freedom. My conscience tells me that bigots are a religious abomination; according to the new policy that’s enough for me to deny care.
Wait, what? That’s a violation of basic medical ethics? Duh! So is refusing to treat gay and transgender people or refusing to prescribe contraception or facilitate abortions. According to the Trump administration, medical ethics are secondary to freedom of conscience.
Let’s take the president at his word: going forward doctors, nurses and pharmacists should refuse to provide medical care for Trump, his family, his administration and his supporters. Who could possibly be more immoral than they are?
