Equal access to healthcare and reproductive rights are civil rights.
LGBT individuals are entitled to healthcare free of prejudice. NCLR’s advocacy is focused on eradicating barriers faced by LGBT people in accessing health care or protecting themselves and their family members in times of crisis. Whether making arrangements for living wills, entering senior or convalescent facilities, undergoing sex reassignment treatment, or planning a family, NCLR works to ensure all people are treated with dignity and respect.
1973’s landmark Roe v. Wade established that all people in this country have a fundamental right to reproductive freedom. Reproductive freedom encompasses a woman’s right to choose, a physician’s right to provide the care that he or she believes is medically appropriate and necessary to his or her patients without unwarranted interference from the government, and full and equal access to healthcare for all people, including equal access to assisted reproduction. The current United States Supreme Court has placed these freedoms in jeopardy; however, NCLR is working with other civil rights organizations to protect and advance these precious human rights.
As LGBT people create families, legal challenges arise, specifically around access to healthcare. Through our legal gains in family law over the years, we have made significant advances in securing our rights to adoption and parenting. The complementary legal gain to this advancement is reproductive freedom for everyone, regardless of LGBT or HIV status. The ability to create and have a family should be available to all.
Everyone is entitled to full and equal access to healthcare. NCLR’s case on behalf of Jenniffer Spencer exemplifies the devastating effects of discriminatory policies. NCLR, the law firm of Morrison & Foerster LLP, and the law firm of Stoel Rives, LLP is suing the Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) on behalf of Spencer, seeking to ensure that she receives medically necessary care. Since 2004, the Idaho Department of Corrections has denied Spencer, a transgender woman, appropriate medical treatment for Gender Identity Disorder (GID). Spencer has made more than 75 written requests for evaluation and treatment, but the IDOC failed to follow its own policies for transgender inmates and displayed deliberate indifference to her serious medical needs. On July 27, 2007, the court granted Spencer’s motion for preliminary injunction and ordered the IDOC to immediately begin providing her with appropriate female hormone therapy.
NCLR will not stop fighting until this kind of injustice ends.
news & opinion
Statement
NCLR Praises President Obama's Order Extending LGBT Hospital Visitation Rights
A Statement from NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell
04.15.10—Today President Barack Obama ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to prohibit discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in hospital visitation. The new rule will grant hospital visitation rights to same-sex partners, and making it easier for LGBT people to make medical decisions on behalf of their partners.
Opinion
Why LGBT People Benefit from Health Care Reform
NCLR's blog: Out for Jusice
03.24.10—This week’s passage of historic health care legislation will improve the lives of millions of Americans, including many people in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. To quote President Obama, “This isn’t radical reform, but it is major reform,” and while LGBT anti-discrimination provisions were not included in the final bill, the passage of health care reform is a momentous achievement that will save lives and will improve access to much-needed health care.
Press Release
Fresno Hospital Agrees to Training and Policy Changes in Response to Mistreatment Of Lesbian Couple
12.16.09 — Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno has agreed to make policy changes and conduct staff trainings to ensure that the rights of its LGBT patients and family members are properly respected. The changes are in response to a demand letter by American Civil Liberties Union and the National Center for Lesbian Rights on behalf of a lesbian who was barred from visiting her partner and giving advice about her treatment at the hospital.
from the docket
Victory! (Idaho)
Gammett v. Idaho State Board of Corrections
Jenniffer Spencer is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for possession of a stolen car and a failed escape attempt that occurred when she was a teenager. Since she has been incarcerated in Idaho, Spencer, a transgender woman, made repeated requests—75 in total—for treatment for her gender identity disorder (GID), but the Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) failed to provide her with any appropriate care.
Loss (New York)
Mariah L. v. Administration for Children’s Services
Mariah L. is a 20 year old male-to-female transgender youth who is a foster child in the custody of the New York Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), which has a duty to provide and pay for all necessary medical care and treatment for children placed in NYC foster care. Although all of Mariah’s medical providers agreed that surgery is medically necessary for her particular needs, ACS refused to provide it.
Victory! (California)
Benitez v. North Coast Women's Care Medical Group
Guadalupe "Lupita" Benitez was denied infertility treatment by her Southern California healthcare providers because she is a lesbian. The trial court rejected the doctors’ claim that they do not have to follow California’s anti-discrimination law because they have religious objections to serving lesbian patients.
publications & downloads
Lifelines: Documents to protect you and your family (pdf)
This publication contains information about essential documents that will help you protect yourself and your loved ones in the event of illness, disability, or death, including creating documents to protect your personal choices about medical care and the persons who can visit you in the hospital.