ACLU sues over law allowing medical providers to refuse LGBTQ patients

The ACLU of Ohio and law firm of Baker Hostetler sued the state Friday over a provision in last year’s state budget bill that allows doctors, nurses, and other medical providers, along with insurance companies and hospitals, to deny services to people based on their conscience.

The lawsuit says the so-called “conscience clause” in the $74 billion budget violates the Ohio Constitution’s single-subject rule that prohibits lawmakers from inserting policy into bills that have nothing to do with the “inherent scope” of the original bill.

The conscience clause was not passed as a freestanding bill, subject to the usual scrutiny and public debate, the lawsuit states.

The attorneys filed the suit on behalf of Equitas Health, a nonprofit serving the healthcare needs of the LGBTQ community in 13 cities throughout Ohio, including in Akron, Canton and Youngstown. They are asking a judge in Franklin County Common Pleas Court to declare the provision void and without effect for violating the single-subject rule.

The conscience clause was added into the spending bill as an amendment toward the end of the process of the budget becoming a law.

Shortly after, the Ohio Hospital Association, Ohio Children’s Hospital Association, Ohio State Medical Association and Ohio Association of Health Plans issued a joint statement opposing it.

While critics have said the suit allows discrimination against LGBTQ people and Ohioans with HIV and AIDS, lawmakers insisted the provision was added so providers and insurance companies wouldn’t have to perform or cover gender-affirming care procedures for transgender Ohioans that opposed their beliefs.

Gov. Mike DeWine did not line-item veto the provision when he signed the budget. He said at the time he didn’t anticipate it would be a problem. He used a hypothetical example of abortion. If one doctor didn’t want to provide one, “somebody else does those things,” he said.

“This extremely broad and vague provision is harmful to healthcare providers serving the LGBTQ+ community, who now face legal and monetary risk in ensuring their patients receive appropriate and necessary care,” said Amy Gilbert, staff attorney for the ACLU of Ohio, in a statement on Friday. “Religious freedom is not a license to discriminate.”

The lawsuit says that if a practitioner refused LGBTQ patients, their employer would be unable to sue them or take an adverse employment action. That, in turn, would hurt Equitas Health.

The lawsuit calls the conscience clause the “Healthcare Denial Law.”

“By preventing such action and putting the community that Equitas Health serves in danger of further discrimination, the Healthcare Denial Law frustrates Equitas Health’s purpose, rendering it unable to fulfill its mission. Equitas Health will continue to suffer this injury as long as the law is in effect,” the lawsuit says.