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New Dem strategy? Pelosi blasts judge’s decision on employers and HIV drugs as ‘extreme MAGA ruling’

September 8, 2022 | | Print Article

Even as President Biden is being blasted around the world for an inflammatory, hate-filled speech that labeled half of all Americans threats to “the very soul of our nation,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has officially made it clear that from here on out, any decision Democrats don’t like is the obvious result of “extreme MAGA Republicans.”

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor ruled in Texas on Wednesday that requiring employees to provide coverage for drugs that prevent the spread of HIV, known as “PrEP” drugs, is a violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which specifically “prohibits any agency, department, or official of the United States or any State (the government) from substantially burdening a person’s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability.”

The bill was sponsored by none other than fellow progressive Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and became the law of the land in 1993.

But now that the RFRA has been used to actually protect the rights of employers, the judge who upheld its very purpose is now, according to Pelosi, a “radical” and his decision to follow it is “open homophobia.”

“Today, a radical, Republican-appointed federal judge ruled that employers can deny coverage for PrEP: a drug proven to save lives from HIV/AIDS and a key strategy for ending the epidemic. This disturbing decision amounts to open homophobia: unleashing unthinkable suffering and death specifically among the LGBTQ community,” Pelosi said in a statement following Judge O’Connor’s ruling. “This decision also threatens vital preventative health services guaranteed under the Affordable Care Act, including birth control, vaccinations and routine health screenings.”

“This extreme MAGA ruling comes just months after the Republican-controlled Supreme Court discarded precedent and privacy in overturning Roe v. Wade,” Pelosi continued. “Since then, House Republicans have plotted an unhinged, dangerous campaign to punish our most personal decisions, from abortion care to birth control and more. With the GOP’s utter disdain for our health, safety and freedom, it is only a matter of time that another drug, treatment, vaccine or health service becomes the next target of their extremism.”

 

The Speaker didn’t mention the radical extremist who was actually behind the decades-old legislation.

The RFRA came into play over a provision in Obama’s Affordable Care Act that required employees to provide PrEP. The drugs are primarily prescribed to men who have sex with other men to lesson the chance that they may contract HIV/AIDS.

In forcing employers to pay for safe gay sex, the provision violates the rights of those who view homosexuality as a violation of their religious convictions, the Daily Mail reports.

Furthermore, O’Connor ruled that the advisory body who recommended that PrEP coverage be mandated was appointed illegally.

This isn’t the first time O’Connor has declared at least part of the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional.

In 2018, he ruled that the entire law violated the Constitution, but the Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that Texas and other challengers to the health care measure lacked standing to pursue their case.

For Pelosi, the ruling is another convenient opportunity to insult more than 70 million Americans, and, in light of her baseless claims, it is obvious that the Speaker is more concerned with scoring political points than she is with defending the Constitution.

“As extreme MAGA Republicans work to rip away life-saving drugs, Democrats are fiercely defending health freedom, protecting access to health care and lowering the cost of prescription drugs,” she virtue signaled.  “Every day, Democrats are putting People Over Politics.”


Unless, of course, the people don’t parrot Pelosi’s agenda.

Because, as is painfully obvious to anyone who bothers listening to Pelosi’s propaganda, those people are … checks notes … a dangerous threat to democracy.

Melissa Fine
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