‘This is not a problem:’ DeWine defends allowing medical providers to deny treating LGBTQ Ohioans – cleveland.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday that LGBTQ Ohioans can find other medical providers if the first ones they approach refuse to treat them, which is allowed under the newly signed budget bill.
DeWine vetoed 14 provisions in the two-year budget, which went into effect Thursday. But he did not veto a provision that allows a medical provider to deny treating people on the basis of their “moral, ethical, or religious beliefs.” Reporters, during a bill signing ceremony, pressed him on the issue, as Ohio’s major associations representing hospitals, doctors and health-insurance providers, as well as LGBTQ rights groups, opposed the provision.
DeWine, who faces a primary re-election next year against candidates further to the political right, said he respects medical providers’ rights to decide whom to treat.
“In the real world, most of those rights are not only recognized and exercised by medical professionals, but they’re being accepted by other medical professionals,” DeWine said. “That is the way the world generally works. This is basically put in statute and codified.”
It’s unclear what would happen if gay or transgender Ohioans experienced a life-threatening medical emergency outside a hospital setting, where the number of medical professionals in the vicinity is limited and the ones available decline to help the patient.
“People are not going to be discriminated against in regards to medical care,” DeWine said. “We have a vibrant medical care system in the state of Ohio. We have great doctors. We have great nurses. We have great systems.”
Aaron Baer, president of the Center for Christian Virtue, formerly Citizens for Community Values, insists the provision would not affect emergency care, regular doctor’s visits and other medical services LGBTQ Ohioans receive. He said the provision is written to allow medical professionals to reject any services, rather than people, who go against their beliefs – such as prescribing puberty blocking drugs or hormones to someone who wants to transition to the other gender. He said the emphasis is on rejecting the services.
“A doctor should not be forced to do something they’re not comfortable with – whether it’s prescribing hydroxychloroquine (for the coronavirus) or puberty blocking drugs,” he said.
DeWine likened the issue to abortion.
“Let’s say the doctor is against abortion,” he said. “If the doctor is not doing abortions, if there’s other things that maybe a doctor has a conscience problem with, it’s worked out. Somebody else does those things. This is not a problem, has not been a problem in the state of Ohio and I do not expect it to be a problem.”
However, women who obtain abortions need to visit specific clinics that offer them. The procedure is not offered at hospitals.
State Sen. Nickie Antonio, a Lakewood Democrat, has said that the medical care provision conflicts with the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits discrimination if a provider receives federal health care funds.
On Tuesday, a number of left-leaning organizations that support LGBTQ Ohioans protested the budget provision, along with others that further restrict abortion clinics and sex education.
Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David, in a statement, said, in part: “Today Governor DeWine enshrined LGBTQ discrimination into law, threatening the medical well being of more than 380,000 LGBTQ people in Ohio, one of the largest LGBTQ populations anywhere in the country. … With Ohio hospital and insurance associations standing against this dangerous measure, Governor DeWine is going against medical best practice and recommendations to score cheap political points.”
Allegations over the years have arisen that transgender people have been denied care, including with Tyra Hunter, a transgender Black woman who died in a car accident in 1995 in Washington, D.C. A rescue worker removed Hunter’s clothing, was shocked by her anatomy and stopped treatment for several minutes.
A jury in 1998 awarded Hunter’s mother $2.9 million in damages in a wrongful death suit.
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