'Dis­crim­i­na­to­ry and dan­ger­ous': Phar­ma com­pa­nies and ad­vo­cates slam Texas judge's HIV cov­er­age de­ci­sion

Phar­ma com­pa­nies have con­demned a fed­er­al judge’s rul­ing that a Texas busi­ness shouldn’t be re­quired to cov­er HIV-pre­ven­tion drugs un­der re­li­gious free­dom law.

Braid­wood Man­age­ment, Kel­ley Or­tho­don­tics and a hand­ful of Texas res­i­dents filed a com­plaint against the US back in 2020, ar­gu­ing that an Af­ford­able Care Act (ACA) man­date re­quir­ing the cov­er­age of pre­ven­ta­tive ser­vices, in­clud­ing pre-ex­po­sure pro­phy­lax­is (PrEP) HIV drugs, vi­o­lates their re­li­gious be­liefs. US dis­trict judge Reed O’Con­nor sided with plain­tiffs on Wednes­day, writ­ing in his opin­ion that the man­date in­fringes on Braid­wood’s rights un­der the Re­li­gious Free­dom Restora­tion Act.

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