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LINK Judge: HIV drug mandate violates religious freedom of anti-gay Christians

A Texas judge ruled this morning that free coverage of PrEP drugs to prevent HIV infection, as required by the Affordable Care Act, is unconstitutional because it violates the religious freedom of Christian-owned companies.

If the ruling is upheld, it would be another victory for religious business owners who claim their faith requires them to make other people suffer if those people might be gay.

Last year, the government began requiring insurance providers to fully cover HIV prevention drugs known as PrEP (Pre-exposure Prophylaxis). These drugs, like Descovy and Truvada, are nearly 99% effective at preventing the transmission of HIV. They’re modern miracles, really. Before generic versions of these drugs became available last year, one month’s worth of PrEP drugs might have cost someone $1,700. They’re much cheaper now, and the new ACA provision requires insurers to cover them fully.

But because HIV has a higher rate of transmission among men who have sex with men—not just gay people, mind you—there’s a widespread and false belief among conservative Christians that these drugs somehow contribute to homosexual behavior. The same people are ignorant of the fact that nearly one in five new HIV cases involve women.

That’s why, in March of 2020, a group of Christians represented by anti-abortion zealot Jonathan Mitchell filed a lawsuit against the government to block the ACA provision requiring these drugs to be provided by insurers. They argued that it violated their religious freedom and that the process by which the ACA approved this coverage was itself illegal. ...

snytiger6 9 Sep 8
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