California’s Attorney General Bans State Travel to Ohio Over Anti-LGBTQ Health Care Law – HillReporter.com
California’s Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta has announced a moratorium on state-funded travel to Ohio over its new anti-LGBTQ health care law, The Sacramento Bee reported on Friday.
On June 30th, Republican Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed House Bill 110 – a massive 700-page budget proposal – into law, which included draconian provisions that allow medical providers and caregivers to deny services to LGBTQ individuals based on personal moral reservations.
Despite having issued 14 other line-item vetoes, DeWine chose to leave this particular clause in place.
“The provision’s language is broad, allowing not just doctors but nurses, counselors, social workers, researchers, pharmacists, and others to deny services if they have a ‘conscience-based objection’ to the specific service requested. The law allows health insurers to deny payment for services on the same grounds,” wrote the Bee, noting that emergency treatment is an exception. Providers who object are required to help their rejected patients find other options.
Bonta’s ban is based on a 2016 California law that prohibits taxpayer funds from being used to pay for travel to states that discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.
“Whether it’s denying a prescription for medication that prevents the spread of HIV, refusing to provide gender-affirming care, or undermining a woman’s right to choose, HB 110 unnecessarily puts the health of Americans at risk,” Bonta said in a statement to the press.
Ohio is now the 18th state along with Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia that California has deemed as posing a clear and present danger to the health and wellbeing of its LGBTQ residents.
Read more via The Sacramento Bee.