The Department of Health and Human Services has made available a 100-page Release (full text) titled Safeguarding the Rights of Conscience as Protected by Federal Statutes that will be published in the Federal Register on January 11. The Release adopts the final version of amendments to rules initially adopted in 2011 and amended in 2019. though the 2019 version never took effect because of litigation. (See prior posting.) The new Rules seek to implement conscience protections in various statutes that bar recipients of federal funds from requiring health care personnel and organizations to participate in conduct that violates their religious or moral beliefs. The new Rules provide in part:
OCR considers the posting of a notice consistent with this part as a best practice towards achieving compliance with and educating the public about the Federal health care conscience protection statutes, and encourages all entities subject to the Federal health care conscience protection statutes to post the model notice provided in Appendix A to this part. OCR will consider posting a notice as a factor in any investigation or compliance review under this rule.
(See prior related posting.)
In a Release (full text) criticizing the new Rule, Alliance Defending Freedom said in part:
In its rule, HHS suggests it will continue its misguided use of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act to require doctors to perform abortions even though that federal law has no abortion requirement, and conscience laws provide no exception allowing forced performance of abortion.
In a Release (full text) commending the Biden Administration for the Rule change, the ACLU said in part:
The Biden administration announced it would partially repeal a dangerous and unnecessary Trump-era rule, which numerous courts had declared unlawful, that would have allowed health care institutions and providers to deny patients treatment and information based on personal religious or moral beliefs.
