National LGBTQ Task Force: Roe Celebrates Its 45th Anniversary During One of the Darkest Years for Reproductive Rights

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 -- The National LGBTQ Task Force (formerly the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force) issued the following news release:

For 45 years, Roe v. Wade has kept abortion legal in the U.S. -- but it hasn't kept politicians from pushing abortion out of reach for poor women, young folks, transgender and gender non-binary people, and communities of color. The National LGBTQ Task Force rises up to realize the promise of Roe, end coverage bans, and resist Trump's extreme anti-abortion agenda.

On the days leading up to the 45th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Trump Administration created new barriers to legal abortion and blocks to access to health care for the LGBTQ community. On January 18, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a new Division on Conscience and Religious Freedom. The next day, while Trump spoke to the March for Life from the White House Rose Garden, HHS released a proposed rule that empowers healthcare providers to discriminate against patients based on who they are and the services that they choose to undergo.

Candace Bond-Theriault, the Task Force's senior policy counsel for reproductive rights, health and justice, explained that the proposed rule -- the Protecting Statutory Conscience Rights in Health Care -- "would create an inconceivably broad standard for providers to make religious and moral objections in health care, that imperils women and the LGBTQ community's access to care." Bond-Theriault will be presenting ways LGBTQ activists and allies can resist attacks on Roe and access to reproductive health care during the Task Force's annual conference, Creating Change, that starts on Wednesday, January 24, in Washington, DC. For more information please visit CreatingChange.org.