Community members joined local organizations at a rally Thursday to protest the Trump administration’s announcement of a Conscience and Religious Freedom Division within the Office of Civil Rights and Department of Health and Human Services.
Dozens of protesters joined Mazzoni Center workers and representatives from Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Make the Road Pennsylvania and SEIU Healthcare. Organizers held the rally in tandem with separate events in Harrisburg and Pittsburgh.
Mazzoni interim CEO Stephen Glassman said the new office “will be responsible for handling complaints from health-care workers who do not want to perform medical procedures such as an abortion or assisted death, because it violates their religious or moral beliefs.”
Glassman added that it could impact the LGBT community.
“This is particularly true for people who identify as transgender and gender-nonconforming, the majority of whom have experienced discrimination, unequal treatment and injustice throughout their lives,” he said.
Out state Rep. Brian Sims said it’s important to “call it what it is.”
“This is about racism, it’s about homophobia, it’s about sexism, it’s about misogyny, and transphobia,” Sims said. “We know exactly what this is about. Those words have definitions. These meet those definitions and, so, I think we need to be very clear in the words we use as well.”
Officials spoke on the negative repercussions trans or gender-nonconforming people have reported in regard to health care in recent years.
According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, a 2015 survey stated that one-third of trans patients seeking health care reported negative outcomes. A quarter of all trans people avoided seeking medical care because they knew about those negative outcomes.
Phebe Brandt, a nurse practitioner with Planned Parenthood, said the new initiative puts others’ health on the line.
“Transgender and gender nonconforming people already face discrimination in healthcare settings,” Brandt said.
Nearly one in five people reported in the national survey that they were refused care because they were transgender or gender-nonconforming.
“The survey participants reported very high levels of postponing care when they were sick or injured because of discrimination and disrespect. Twenty-eight percent were subject to harassment in the medical setting,” Brandt said. “People have the right to trust that health-care providers provide the best care possible — not worry that they may instead impose their private religious beliefs on their patients.”
Officials emphasized the importance of protecting patients when religious refusals may compromise care.
“This initiative threatens access to health-care services disproportionately hurting women and LGBT people, especially including trans people,” Brandt said. “This is another dangerous attack on health care in a string of attempts to infringe on our freedoms. Despite these attacks, Planned Parenthood will continue to open its doors to all people and provide our patients with the best possible care.”
For Kai Mondloch, a transgender woman and medical-case manager at Mazzoni, it’s not about asking people to change their views, but simply to medically treat individuals as needed.
“I need access to a provider who will support me and care for me no matter what concerns I have about my health,” Mondloch said. “I am not asking for special considerations from anyone, I am looking for support in being my full self.
“I am not asking anyone to change their moral or religious beliefs, I am asking them to do the job they’re being paid for to help me to receive the medical services I need.”