The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released yesterday a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (full text) titled Safeguarding the Rights of Conscience as Protected by Federal Statutes. In 2019, the Trump Administration HHS adopted final rules on protecting the conscience rights of health care providers. The rules were criticized as possibly imperiling care for persons seeking reproductive health care, weakening childhood vaccination efforts and potentially leading to discrimination against gay and transgender patients. (See prior posting.) Several courts enjoined enforcement of the 2019 rules. (See prior posting.) Yesterday's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking says in part:
The Department also proposes to retain, with some modifications, certain provisions of the 2019 Final Rule regarding federal conscience protections but eliminate others because they are redundant or confusing, because they undermine the balance Congress struck between safeguarding conscience rights and protecting access to health care access, or because significant questions have been raised as to their legal authorization. Further, the Department seeks to determine what additional regulations, if any, are necessary to implement certain conscience protection laws. The Department is seeking public comment on the proposal to retain certain provisions of the 2019 Final Rule, including on any alternative approaches for ensuring compliance with the conscience protection laws....
The ACLU issued a press release calling the HHS Notice "an important first step toward repealing the most harmful aspects of this dangerous rule."
