Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Retired cop meets abandoned baby he helped 23 years ago: ‘What are the odds?’

I used to dismiss my mom’s advice. Then I found a note she wrote before she died.  

Photos of his mom at lunch are a balm people didn’t know they needed

Did Obamacare ‘massively’ increase the cost of health care?

RFK Jr.’s ‘history lesson’ on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine flunks the fact test

The Trump-Biden battle over the 2017 tax cut

Eighth-inning decision burns the Nats in a 4-2 loss to the Red Sox

The Wizards will pick second in the NBA draft. Here’s whom they could take.

Mistakes pile up, leaving the Nationals with a 3-2 loss at Fenway Park

Ask Amy: Dad hurt by daughter publicly reconnecting with her biological family

Miss Manners: Should I accept offered seat swaps when I’m flying for free?

Carolyn Hax: What’s the real cost of going halfsies on a modest engagement ring?

2024 elections latest updates: Biden seeks to put focus on health care, infrastructure

Democratic group starts attacking Trump with abortion rights testimonials 

Can you spot bad financial advice on TikTok? Take our quiz.

Trump insults N.Y. case prosecutor at Jersey Shore rally

Blinken: U.S. ‘would not support’ Israeli invasion of Rafah

5 myths about Social Security as the program faces a funding crisis

Social Security has to be fixed. But you still need your own savings.

Pete Buttigieg’s view from the middle seat

The case for eating at Italian gas stations

5 big travel lessons from an accomplished conservationist

U.S.-China talks on AI risks set to begin in Geneva

Web publishers brace for carnage as Google adds AI answers

Fooled by AI? These firms sell deepfake detection that’s ‘REAL 100%.’ 

No, Apple, people do not want tech to crush everything in its path 

The urgent air defense lessons of April 16 

Are smartphones destroying childhood? It’s complicated.

Middle East conflict live updates: Israeli forces advance in Rafah, Health Ministry says Gaza hospital system will collapse in hours

Why Spain will recognize a Palestinian state

Far-right German party may threaten democracy, can be spied on, court rules

US President Joe Biden Departure

Healthy living, including food, fitness, longevity and mental health

See more coverage in your recommendations

See alerts for Health and Wellness developments

Health & wellness

Tips on living better delivered every Thursday

Well+Being newsletter

Health alerts

Health & Science alerts

Carolyn Kaster

The Biden administration announced Friday it is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/07/25/biden-lgbtq-health-protections/" target=_blank>reinstating federal protections </a>for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2023/transgender-health-care/" target=_blank>LGBTQ+ people seeking health care</a> that had been unraveled during the Trump administration.

The move comes after years of legal disputes and pressure from activists to protect patients who are undergoing <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2023/transgender-health-care/" target=_blank>gender affirming treatment</a> or who received abortions from being denied other forms of health care. Conservatives oppose the rules prohibiting discrimination,<b> </b>contending they would force providers to provide services against their religious beliefs.

Under<a href="https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2024-08711.pdf" target=_blank> sweeping rules</a> finalized Friday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, government health officials, organizations receiving federal health funding and health insurers that do business through government plans must abide by the nondiscrimination standards. Officials stress the rules are about prohibiting discrimination against patients rather than compelling providers to perform procedures.

Proponents of the rules have said they would protect patients from being turned away because they are gay or trans and prohibit health insurance policies that require LGBTQ+ people to wait longer and pay more for fertility benefits. The rules also contain more broadly applicable provisions, such as requiring health providers and other recipients of federal money to inform patients of free services that provide accessibility and language assistance.

“Americans across the country now have a clear way to act on their rights against discrimination when they go to the doctor, talk with their health plan, or engage with health programs run by HHS,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement.

The rule focuses on Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which bans health care providers from discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, age and disability in health programs that receive federal funding. HHS can enforce strict penalties against organizations and workers that the agency concludes broke the law — ranging from requiring additional training to kicking offenders out of federal programs. Federal officials say the rules preserve religious exemptions.

Politicians and advocacy groups have spent more than a decade arguing over how the White House should interpret the rule, particularly how it applies to LGBTQ+ and pregnant patients who could face discrimination from providers unwilling to treat them. The Obama administration issued regulations that included protections for gender identity and sex stereotyping. The Trump administration eliminated those specific protections. And the Biden administration <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/07/25/biden-lgbtq-health-protections/" target=_blank>moved in 2022 </a>to restore and expand on the Obama-era definition by including sexual orientation as a specific protection.

The Supreme Court in 2020 also ruled, in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-says-gay-transgender-workers-are-protected-by-federal-law-forbidding-discrimination-on-the-basis-of-sex/2020/06/15/2211d5a4-655b-11ea-acca-80c22bbee96f_story.html" target="_blank"><i>Bostock v. Clayton County</i></a>, Ga., that sex discrimination includes discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation, prompting some courts to block implementation of the Trump-era rules. A coalition of LGBTQ+ and other organizations suing to repeal the Trump-era rules urged the Biden administration to expedite the rules restoring protections.

LGBTQ+ activists cheered the Biden administration to finalizing the rules Friday.

“LGBTQ Americans are grateful for this step forward to combat discrimination in health care so no one is barred from lifesaving treatment,” Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of the advocacy group GLAAD, said in a statement.

The fight over discrimination in health care is likely to drag on because conservatives have signaled plans to resist attempts to cement protections.

Republicans criticized the Biden administration’s proposed rule in 2022, with state attorneys general <a href="https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/images/press/State%20AGs%20Comment%20on%20Proposed%20HHS%20Sec%201557%20Regulation.pdf" target=_blank>warning HHS</a> not to “exceed its statutory authority” and signaling that they were prepared to sue over the anticipated final rule.

Conservatives also are urging a future GOP White House to reverse “the redefinition of sex to cover gender identity and sexual orientation and pregnancy to cover abortion,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/22/trump-second-term-extremism/" target=_blank>Project 2025</a>, a conservative group backed by the Heritage Foundation, wrote last year in a road map for policymakers.

The Biden administration’s interpretation of the law would create “special privileges for new classes of people, defined in ways that are highly ideological and unscientific,” Project 2025 added. The group called for HHS to instead focus on “serious cases of race, sex, and disability discrimination” such as its <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-providers/compliance-enforcement/agreements/vra-msu/index.html" target=_blank>probe</a> into Michigan State University over allegations former gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar assaulted students there.

Northwestern University, BS in journalism and political science. 

American University, MSJ in journalism. 

Fenit Nirappil is a reporter for the Health & Science team who covers public health, infectious diseases and LGBTQ issues. He previously covered local politics. 

Fenit Nirappil

George Polk Award, 2020

Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting finalist, 2021

University of Pennsylvania, BA in history

Dan Diamond is a national health reporter for The Washington Post. He joined The Post in 2021 after five years at Politico, where he won a George Polk award for investigating the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Dan Diamond

LGBTQ+ health care protections reinstated by Biden administration

the-washington-post

Biden Transgender Health

Health Care

Medical Mysteries

Science

Well+Being

Health

washpost

prism://prism.query/site,/health&limit=20

The Washington Post health section provides coverage and analysis of health, healthcare, nutrition and fitness news.