Trump HHS Removes Obamacare Rule Mandating Coverage for Abortions and 'Gender Identity'

P. Gardner Goldsmith | July 16, 2020
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In the wake of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) majority opinions in the “Burwell v. Hobby Lobby” case (2014) and “Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania et al.” (July, 2020), the Trump Administration just announced that it will change the mandates of ObamaCare (the so-called “Affordable Care Act”, or ACA) to remove commands that businesses provide health insurance covering abortions and “Gender Identity” medical claims.

The New American’s Warren Mass reports:

The Obama administration had redefined sex discrimination to include termination of pregnancy (abortion) and gender identity, which it defined as ‘one’s internal sense of gender, which may be male, female, neither, or a combination of male and female.’

Of course, the ObamaCare commands not only redefine “contraceptive” to include abortifacients, not only make no scientific sense when it comes to gender, and not only open a door to an infinite number of “gender identities”, the very foundation of the ObamaCare mandate is invalid – both constitutionally and, more important, morally.

But the overall mandate is not being questioned. This new revision is just a small – though welcomed – change.

Specifically, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has removed language compelling business owners to provide health insurance policies that pay for what are euphemistically called “contraceptives”, but which include abortifacients such as RU486, the “morning after pill”, which flushes a fertilized, growing human being from a woman’s womb, killing that human being – ending a human life. Additionally, the Trump Administration will not require employer-provided health insurance polices to cover all those “gender identity” issues.

This comes following the “Little Sisters of the Poor” opinion last week in which the majority found against states such as NJ and PA in their attempt to use byzantine federal “departmental rules” to block the Trump Administration from actually implementing these word-changes in ObamaCare.

And this move by the Trump Administration follows the 2014 “Hobby Lobby” ruling, which found that the government cannot compel a business to pay for health insurance that pays for procedures which the employer might find running contrary to his or her religious beliefs.

Because of the 2014 ruling, the Trump Administration had not enforced the compulsory wording of ObamaCare in that regard, but the wording still existed in the DHHS rules, ready to be utilized by any future President, unless the “rules” were re-worked.

Which is precisely what the Trump DHHS has just done.

But there’s a lot more to this than the slight relief offered to business owners who don’t want to be compelled to fund medical procedures and doctor visits that run contrary to their morals.

If one reads the “Hobby Lobby” majority opinion, one sees two major salient points.

First, in its opening description of the case, the Supreme Court majority carries on the lie of calling chemicals that kill people “contraceptives”. Here is the pertinent section, from the second introductory paragraph of the opinion:

 Nonexempt employers are generally required to provide coverage for the 20 contraceptive methods approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including the 4 that may have the effect of preventing an already fertilized egg from developing any further by inhibiting its attachment to the uterus. 

Yeah. An “already fertilized egg” – which describes all humans who are alive today, and all humans who have ever lived since the creation of Adam and Eve. A “fertilized egg” is a human embryo, a living human being. It is human, and it is being. It possesses distinct DNA that is separate from the DNA of both parents, and it is growing, on the natural track of life that is NOT supposed to be broken by another human. Such a break is called “killing”, and when it is intentional, and not done in real self-defense, it is called “murder”.

It is important to remember and spread the word that what many call “contraceptives” are not “contravening conception”, but are killing a living human being.

Second, this change in DHHS wording that now allows employers to not pay for health insurance coverage handling abortions and gender “identity” issues is just one facet of a much larger picture.

That picture requires Americans to recognize that there is absolutely no enumerated power in the Constitution that allows the feds or any government to mandate that people buy health insurance, that businesses get health coverage for their employees, that insurance companies operate in a particular way, or for the DHHS to exist at all.

And even if the Constitution DID allow the politicians to command others in how they live and operate their businesses, there is a deeper truth. There is no moral authority for a politician to command others to include things in their lives – at all.

Should politicians tell bookstores what books to sell? Should politicians tell consumers at bookstores that they not only have to buy books, but books of certain lengths, by certain authors, of certain sizes? And should writers be compelled to write books including certain words or ideas, so that the preferred minority with whom the politicians want to curry favor will benefit?

Moments such as this cannot be squandered. Let’s turn Rahm Emanuel and Hillary Clinton’s bold opportunism of “never waste a good crisis” on its head.

Let’s not waste opportunities to learn about the Constitution and the deeper moral principles of freedom, and then to spread that knowledge to others. If Americans truly believe in freedom, we must stand up for these principles.

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