January 19, 2018
WASHINGTON – The Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF) condemns the Trump Administration’s decision to create a new division within the Health and Human Services Department (HHS), designed to allow health care providers to discriminate against patients based on their own beliefs, typically leading to refusal of care for abortions and transgender patients.
Edward Tepporn, APIAHF executive vice president, said, “These exemptions go against the very oath health care providers take to uphold ethical standards and provide care to all patients to the best of their ability. Women and LGBT patients already face many challenges to accessing health care, and this rule only further disenfranchises them.”
The exemptions that the Trump Administration have put forth will endanger already vulnerable groups. Asian American and Pacific Islander women have disproportionately high rates of abortion and lower rates of contraception use. For many of these women, access to culturally and linguistically appropriate, affordable, quality reproductive care, including abortion, remains out of reach.
APIAHF is committed to advancing the health and well-being of all Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in the United States, its territories and jurisdictions, and believes that all communities should have access to quality, affordable care that meets their needs. APIAHF urges the Administration to promote health equity for all rather than creating harmful restrictions that undermine a person’s ability to make their own health care decisions.