SAN FRANCISCO—On Tuesday, November 19, a San Francisco judge denied a federal rule that would allow healthcare workers to deny aid to patients due to religious beliefs.
The Trump Administration implemented the law that would allow health care workers from receptionists to EMT’s to refuse sterilization or abortion services for religious and moral reasons. Under the law, healthcare workers would not have to inform their superiors of the denial of healthcare to a patient. Judge William Alsup is the third judge to block the rule.
“An ambulance driver would be free, on religious or moral grounds, to eject a patient en route to a hospital upon learning that the patient needed an emergency abortion,” said Judge Alsup during his ruling.
San Francisco is the third city in the United Stated to block the rule following Sponake, Washington and New York City.
According to the administration’s rule, a hospital could lose all of its federal funding if it fired an employee for refusing to tell a patient the appropriate floor to go to if they were seeking an abortion. The state of California could lose $77.6 billion in funding. The city of San Francisco and Santa Clara County could each lose $1 billion in funding annually.
