CHICAGO, IL – AIDS Foundation Chicago applauds President Biden for calling out the attacks on women’s reproductive care, including the criminalization of clinicians who provide life-saving care to pregnant women and other individuals who can become pregnant, the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, in particular transgender Americans, and the detrimental impact of price gouging in health care during the 2024 State of the Union Address.
AFC staunchly supports the right of women and people who can become pregnant to make decisions about their body without government interference. At a time when maternal and infant mortality rates are sky-high, particularly for Black women, we cannot politicize difficult and private medical decisions between a patient and their provider.
We agree with the President and urge Congress to pass the Equality Act (H.R. 15) to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. LGBTQ+ individuals can still be discriminated against in health care settings and denied housing opportunities in states across the country, and this is not only morally unacceptable, it also threatens the work we are doing to end the HIV epidemic in the U.S.
AFC further supports all efforts to reign in price gouging in health care and by pharmaceutical companies, including Medicare’s new ability to cap spending on insulin and to negotiate the price of the highest costing drugs. We applaud the administration’s efforts to increase enrollment in health insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and other programs, and vehemently oppose any attempts to repeal the ACA.
Finally, we applaud the President for calling out the dangerous rise in housing costs, and the administration’s work to make home ownership more affordable in the face of rampant inflation. Housing is health care, and when people impacted by HIV cannot access affordable housing, they are unable to prioritize their medical care. We support any efforts to make housing more affordable.
