TRENTON, N.J. – New Jersey’s Attorney General Gurbir Grewal joined yet another lawsuit against the Trump Administration on Monday, this time challenging a controversial June 2020 rule change which eliminated legal protections concerning transgender and abortion created by the Obamacare law.
The lawsuit challenging the change is joined by 23 U.S. states including New Jersey.
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“There’s never a good time for discrimination in health care, but the federal government’s decision to eliminate anti-discrimination protections during a pandemic means New Jersey residents may immediately face increased health risks,” said Grewal. “The burdens of this rule will fall most heavily on already-underserved populations, who will now find it even harder to obtain routine medical treatment as well as lifesaving interventions. With our challenge to this rule, we are standing up for our residents against the current Administration’s latest effort to dismantle the protections of the Affordable Care Act.”
The 2016 rule created by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) applied to health care providers and insurers receiving federal aid and, as articulated by the AG’s press release, “clarified that the statute’s prohibition on discrimination on the basis of sex included discrimination based on gender identity, sex stereotypes, and pregnancy-related conditions; detailed covered entities’ obligations to transgender individuals; established detailed language access requirements to ensure nondiscriminatory access to health services for individuals with limited English proficiency; and established a uniform enforcement scheme for all forms of discrimination prohibited by the statute.”
Suing the Trump Administration has become a preoccupation of the Murphy Administration.
Notwithstanding a brief break brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, Grewal has continuously used his office to sue the Trump Administration over a variety of issues ranging from immigration enforcement to environmental concerns.
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