Texas Clinic Heroically Fights to Make Preventative Healthcare Optional—Because Jesus Said So?

Texas Clinic Heroically Fights to Make Preventative Healthcare Optional—Because Jesus Said So?

Alright folks, buckle up. I read the case on preventative healthcare—HIV treatments, PrEP, cancer screenings—so you don’t have to. And surprise, surprise: the reason we're even talking about this mess comes from… drumroll… a tiny Christian-owned business in Texas.

Of course it’s Texas.

Meet Braidwood Management, a very, very, very small clinic that somehow decided that the Affordable Care Act’s requirement to cover preventative services was a personal attack on their religious beliefs. Because, obviously, preventing diseases = Satan's work.

So, naturally, they sued the Biden administration, claiming that having to cover preventative healthcare violated their right to not believe in science.

Now, here’s where it gets fun. Because simply whining about PrEP and HIV meds wasn’t going to get them all the way to the Supreme Court, they needed a bigger loophole. So, they threw in a fancy legal argument, saying the US Preventive Services Task Force (the group that recommends what health services should be covered) is unconstitutional because its members aren’t appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

Translation: “We can’t say outright that we don’t want to cover HIV meds for religious reasons, so instead, we’ll argue that the government experts recommending these meds shouldn’t have power in the first place.”

But here’s the kicker: The US Preventive Services Task Force isn’t even made up of public officials. They’re volunteers. Experts in disease prevention, evidence-based medicine, primary care, and behavioral health. They don’t get paid. They’re screened for conflicts of interest. They just… give advice on what works in medicine.

So this case isn’t actually about PrEP, cancer screenings, or preventative care anymore. It’s about whether the president should have the power to appoint anyone to any government advisory role.

And if that sounds like an insane way to gut the entire public health system while pretending it’s about "constitutionality"—congrats, you get it!

And let me just say—the people on this task force? One of the most diverse groups of experts you’ll find in any government-related position. They’re literally some of the best-qualified professionals in medicine. But yeah, sure, let’s listen to a small Texas clinic that doesn’t want to cover PrEP because Jesus might be watching.

So here we are. A tiny religious business found a legal backdoor to argue that nobody should be able to enforce preventative healthcare coverage at all. And now, it's on track to land in front of the Supreme Court, which—reminder—has already proven shockingly eager to side with religious extremists.

Hope you all enjoyed healthcare while it lasted.