President Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum that allows visitation rights to same sex couples in the hospital room. This order applies to all hospitals that accept Medicaid or Medicare. That includes health centers where religious beliefs might conflict with this new order of inclusion. We invited several local faith-based hospitals to comment on these changes, but they declined the offer. That may be because there aren’t many changes to come, according to the executive director of the Illinois Catholic Health Association, Patrick Cacchione.

Mary Ann Case is a law professor at the University of Chicago. She explains the legal consequences of the President’s action, and what it might signal politically.