The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and
Lambda Legal on Friday said that they would challenge a Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS) rule change that eliminates
transgender protections in the Affordable Care Act, also known as
Obamacare.
HHS released the final rule on Friday.
(Related: Biden
criticizes Trump's rollback of transgender protections in health
care.)
HHS's rule reverses an Obama-era
regulation that expanded the definition of sex as it relates to
discrimination in health care to include gender identity. HHS's new
rule defines sex as “determined by biology.”
In separate statements, Lambda Legal
and HRC said they would challenge the rule in court. It was not clear
whether the groups planned to file separate lawsuits.
“We cannot and will not allow Donald
Trump to continue attacking us. Today, the Human Rights Campaign is
announcing plans to sue the Trump administration for exceeding their
legal authority and attempting to remove basic health care
protections from vulnerable communities including LGBTQ people. And,
to add insult to injury, the administration finalized this rule on
the anniversary of the Pulse shooting, where a gunman killed 49
people in an LGBTQ nightclub,” HRC President Alphonso David said in
a statement.
“LGBTQ people get sick. LGBTQ people
need health care. LGBTQ people should not live in fear that they
cannot get the care they need simply because of who they are. It is
clear that this administration does not believe that LGBTQ people, or
other marginalized communities, deserve equality under the law. But
we have a reality check for them: we will not let this attack on our
basic right to be free from discrimination in health care go
unchallenged. We will see them in court, and continue to challenge
all of our elected officials to rise up against this blatant attempt
to erode critical protections people need and sanction
discrimination,” David said.
Lambda Legal also criticized the new
policy and announced it would take legal action.
“Today's rule is a tragically failed
public health policy and just flat out illegal,” said Omar Gonzalez
Pagan, senior attorney at Lambda Legal. “We will be challenging the
rule because at a time when the entire world is battling a dangerous
pandemic, which in the United States has infected more than 2,000,000
people and killed more than 116,000, it is critical for everyone to
have ready access to the potentially life-saving health care they
need.”
In a
lawsuit filed in March, Lambda Legal claimed that the Trump
administration had failed to enforce LGBT nondiscrimination
protections in HHS-funded programs.