US policy shift - Dept. Of Health and Human Services defines gender as a person's biological sex.

As for the abortion bit, our own 1967 abortion act also contains a clause where staff can refuse to treat someone on grounds of religious belief.

Is that really true? That in the US doctors can refuse to treat people who are dying? For religious reasons because they don't agree with their lifestyle?

@RuffleCrow the law allows doctors to refuse to treat any member of the LGBT community or someone they perceive to be a member of that community on religious grounds, it is not just trans people this change in the law affects it affects sexual orientation as well.

It is a wide ranging law that he has rolled back that protected the whole LGBT community, So doctor's can refuse to treat lesbians and gay men and bisexuals as well as trans people.

Without further information from a reputable source I have to say that I believe you to not only be scaremongering, Linda, but smearing people of faith. I can’t see why any religious doctor would specifically refuse a lesbian treatment, unless you’re talking about some sort of fertility treatment, which wouldn’t be an emergency.

I don't think so @LindaLeeDanvers unless you think lesbian women are male? Why wouldn't they just treat her according to her sex like any other woman?

@InfiniteSheldon they can't sack them, as they are following the law. The family can't sue them for wrongful death as they were following the law. In fact the new law screws over the LGBT community and anyone who does not conform to gender norms and could be suspected of being LGBT even if they are not.

The new rule also provides a blanket exemption to health providers who refuse to provide abortion services because of their religious beliefs.

They won't keep there job long if that very stretched logic scenario actually ever happens. Good on the USA for defining sex as biological a huge step forward in protecting women and girls.

Under Obama's law the doctor had to treat them regardless to any objections, now Trump has removed that so doctors can freely discriminate.

So as i said you can have a woman who looks like a butch lesbian but is married with children involved in a car accident and because the doctor thinks she looks like a lesbian refuses to treat her and lets her die instead.

If I was an American doctor prior to this with a religious objection to treating gay people, would that have been seen as legitimate? Or is it part of this new ruling?

@334bu yes they can, if the doctor has a legitimate religious objection to treating that patient because they appear to be gay or they suspect that they are trans then they can refuse to treat them even if they have insurance.

Had a quick look online and it would appear that as LGBT community are not protected I. the same way as in UK this will mean that Insurance providers can deny cover for
GR surgery as can medical professionals. Not sure about other treatment such as emergency medicine. Us Healthcare!

The doctor does not even need to know they only have to suspect that they are a lesbian so a gender non-conformist woman with short hair who is actually in a hetrosexual relationship with children but looks like a butch lesbian could be refused treatment.

The law states that they dont need evidence of their sexuality only a belief that they are. So it's totally subjective and down to the doctor in question they can suspect someone is gay and refuse to treat them. That is all they need, a suspicion.

@lindaleedanvers

How would the doctor know their patient was a lesbian in your scenario?

Can you explain this a bit more. Can doctors in the US refuse to give life saving treatment to people who turn up at hospital with health insurance?

It also covers all LGBTQ pwople, so while you might think this is a great thing it also gives doctors the right to refuse medical treatment to a lesbian woman who is laying dying on the table after being beaten up because of the doctors religious belief.