The Atlantic

Why Trump Is Rolling Back LGBTQ Health-Care Protections

A culture-war fight is playing out in the courts and federal agencies.
Source: Lucy Nicholson / Reuters

Updated on May 24, 2019 at 5:29 p.m. EST

On Friday, Donald Trump’s administration started rolling back two controversial legal provisions related to the Affordable Care Act: protections against discrimination based on gender identity, and based on the termination of a pregnancy. Advocates for LGBTQ and women’s health care see this proposed reversal as a pointed attack on transgender people and patients who have received abortions—the latest in a series of moves by the Trump administration to limit the rights of marginalized populations.

But beyond the alarmed reactions, a larger legal question is at stake, about both the authority of government agencies and the very nature of discrimination. In the absence of a clear federal law protecting LGBTQ and other rights in housing, hiring, and public accommodations, including health care, this culture-war fight

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