Newsfront
Biden Plans Sweeping New Abortion Mandates
Executive order would force hospitals to carry out procedure, and insurance companies to pay for it.
F BY DAVID A. PATTEN
amilies, hospitals, doc- tors, and employers nation- wide are bracing for a “cul- tural earthquake” involving
gender, healthcare, and abortion. Civil libertarians and religious lib-
erty attorneys are warning that the Biden administration is planning to roll out sweeping new federal health- care mandates any day now. When the U.S. Supreme Court
issued its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling last year, pro-life groups cheered the demise of Roe v. Wade. But for progressives and the Biden administration, it simply touched off an intense search for ways to achieve the same end results by other means — even in states that have voted to severely restrict abortion. Now it appears they may have
found a way to do it. In July, President Joe Biden issued
an executive order directing the fed- eral bureaucracy to work around the
10 NEWSMAX | APRIL 2023
high court’s ruling, stating Dobbs had “devastating implications for wom- en’s health.” In his presidential directive, he
redefi ned “termination of pregnancy” as a “reproductive healthcare service.” That was just the opening salvo. In
August, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) unveiled a wide-ranging reinterpretation of Sec- tion 1557 of the Aff ordable Care Act, the controversial plan passed during the Obama administration. Among those stunning regulatory
changes, if enacted as proposed: All hospitals and qualifi ed physi- cians, no matter where they are located, must perform chemical and surgical abortions. All employers and their insurance companies would be required to pay for these services. They will also be required by law to cover “gender-affi rming care” for “nonbinary persons” — radical, gen- ital-altering procedures that many Americans never would have consid-
ered part of a health insurance plan. These include puberty blockers for children, breast removals, cross-sex hormones, and removal of genitalia. Refusing to provide these servic- es would open insurers to heavy fi nes as well as Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charges for discrimination. Employers and their employees, rather than those undergoing them, would be expected primarily to pay for these services via their premi- ums and other fees and charges. The nationwide cost is expected to raise healthcare expenditures by billions of dollars. Originally, Section 1557 declared it
unlawful for any provider of health- care that receives federal funds or reimbursements to refuse care against anyone based on color, race, nation of origin, sex, age, or disability. Now, that same language is being
used to prohibit denial of abortion or gender-identity surgeries and proce- dures. The HHS and EEOC under Biden
insist Section 1557 includes not only abortion services but “gender-affi rm-
PILLS/SOFIIA.P/SHUTTERSTOCK / BIDEN/ANNA MONEYMAKER/GETTY IMAGES / TOOLS/KAWIN OUNPRASERTSUK/SHUTTERSTOCK
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