South Carolina became the seventh state last month to permit health care providers to decline to serve people if they feel doing so would overstep their religious beliefs.

As a result, more than 1 in 8 LGBTQ people now live in states where doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals can legally refuse to treat them, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank.

In addition to South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Ohio, and Illinois have similar measures in effect.

Advocates and legal experts say the laws will further raise the barriers to health care for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer patients.

Proponents of such legislation, however, say the measures don’t allow providers to discriminate against or target LGBTQ people.

This is such a cruel thing to do as a doctor-to refuses treatment to a person. Some doctors are not even ready to accept them as humans and believe in the stigma around them.

Source: NBC