The Trump Administration is attempting to win favor with antiabortion advocates gathering in Washington, DC this week by threatening to undermine access to health care for millions of Illinois residents. The Washington Post reports that the Department of Health and Human Services is using up to $20 billion that health care providers receive through Medicaid and other grants to bully the State of Illinois to abandon changes made to the state’s Health Care Right of Conscience Act in 2016 that simply ensure that patients get all the information they need to make the best decisions about their health care. The threats reflect yet another example of the Trump Administration’s reckless approach to health care funding – risking the well-being of large swathes of people in order to coerce states to follow the Administration’s unpopular, ideologically-driven policies.
Illinois’ Health Care Right of Conscience Act was amended in 2016 to ensure that patients receive information about where they might be able to receive standard, lawful medical care when a provider or health care institution has a religious or conscience objection to a particular course of treatment. The amendment reflects the commonsense principle that while providers may raise such objections to offering certain kinds of care, they still need to make patients aware of the availability of health care those patients might elect for their own course of treatment. Anti-abortion advocates have been challenging the amended law in the courts for many years in ongoing litigation and now have found an alternative refuge in the Trump Administration.
In response to this threat, Colleen K. Connell, Executive Director of the ACLU of Illinois, issued the following statement:
A decade ago, we advocated for changes to the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act after hearing from patients who were denied critical information needed to make the best decisions about their medical treatment because of the religious and conscience objections of providers and institutions. The changes – debated in both legislative chambers, passed by a majority, and signed into law by Republican Governor Bruce Rauner – did not bar providers from exercising religious objections to providing care, but just made clear that the provider could not make a treatment decision for a patient by withholding information about any lawful options.
Rather than respect the democratic and judicial processes, the Trump Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services once again appear ready to use the tax dollars of Illinois residents as a cudgel to demand our state comply with their narrow political interests – in this instance, giving a win to anti-abortion forces. This is blackmail that will not advance religious liberty in our country but will threaten the health and well-being of millions of Illinois residents.
When Illinois patients go into an exam room, they should not need to worry that they are being denied medical information based on their health care provider’s religious beliefs nor the political desires of the increasingly erratic and unpopular Administration in Washington, DC. Illinois does not need Donald Trump and Secretary Kennedy in our exam rooms. The Department should withdraw this threat.
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