Trump touts new faith-based rule for health care workers

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump announced a new rule allowing health providers, insurers and employers to refuse to provide or pay for services such as abortion, sterilization or assisted suicide that they say violate their religious beliefs.

The announcement was made Thursday during a speech before faith leaders gathered for the National Day of Prayer.

Conservative groups welcomed what they said was needed protection for religious liberties, while LGBT and women's groups warned it would lead to discrimination and drastically reduced services for already marginalized groups since providers might decline to offer certain treatments, or refuse to treat gay and transgender people altogether.

"Religious liberty is a fundamental right, but it doesn't include the right to discriminate or harm others," said Louise Melling of the American Civil Liberties Union. "This rule threatens to prevent people from accessing critical medical care and may endanger people's lives. ... Medical standards, not religious belief, should guide medical care."

Religious conservatives contend such protections are needed in the face of increasing state and federal mandates.

"No health care worker should ever be forced to choose between their practice or their faith," said Ashley McGuire, a senior fellow at The Catholic Association. "That principle is enshrined in countless laws and regulations but has been violated for far too long."

Trump's remarks on the National Day of Prayer were the third time he has used the 77-year-old annual multifaith observance to make announcements addressing concerns of Christian conservatives. During his first year in office, he promised to make it easier for religious leaders to speak openly about politics. On Thursday, he said the Johnson Amendment, which prevents churches from endorsing political candidates, has been effectively eliminated, though it would take an act of Congress to officially strike it.

At the Rose Garden ceremony, Trump also noted the three black churches set aflame in Louisiana, along with the bombings of churches in Sri Lanka, the attack on a mosque in New Zealand and the attack on synagogue in Pittsburgh last year.

"We will fight with all our strength and everything that we have in our bodies to defeat anti-Semitism, to end the attacks on the Jewish people and to conquer all forms of persecution, intolerance and hate," he said. Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, who lost his finger during a shooting at his synagogue last week in Poway, California, thanked Trump for "being, as they say in Yiddish, 'a mensch par excellence.' "

The final rule regarding health care - issued by the Department of Health and Human Services - broadly defines, or in some cases redefines, key terms in the law such as discrimination, referrals and what it means to assist in a procedure. It also meticulously lays out religious exemptions in detail.

It explicitly mentions abortion, sterilization, assisted suicide and advance directives as issues, and says that individuals and entities would be allowed to refrain from having to provide, participate in, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for, such services. It includes protections for medical students, people who prep patients for the operating rooms, and charitable groups.

Such "conscience protections," as conservatives describe them, have become a flash point in culture war debates. In a high-profile battle with the Obama administration, several religious institutions objected to HHS's mandate that employers must cover employees' contraception.

Office of Civil Rights Director Roger Severino said that under the Obama administration, the office received an average of 125 conscience-related complaints each year. However, in the last fiscal year there were 343, reflecting what he said is a greater need for protections.

Credit: By Ariana Eunjung Cha; Sarah Pulliam Bailey - The Washington Post

Caption: President Trump speaks Thursday during a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden of the White House.

Evan Vucci/AP