Following reports that the Trump administration has revised a rule in the Affordable Care Act that unlawfully redefined the meaning of “sex” for certain nondiscrimination provisions, the Heritage Foundation’s Emilie Kao, director of the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society, offered the following response:

“Our health care system is one of the best in the world because our doctors, nurses, surgeons and other professionals have the freedom to perform life-saving work. Obamacare tried to subjugate that freedom by forcing health providers to perform procedures that violated their best medical judgment.”

“The Trump administration is right to revise Obamacare’s unlawful regulation that was blocked from taking effect by a federal court. It would have forced physicians to offer sex-reassignment procedures and abortions despite strong ethical and medical concerns."

“No American should be forced to violate deeply held beliefs, especially in hotly debated issues in health care. All Americans should be able to choose health care and health insurance that best fits their needs and beliefs.”