# Plain Language Summary: Defense of Conscience in Health Care Act

This bill protects health care workers who have religious or moral objections to performing certain medical procedures. Specifically, it prevents employers, insurance companies, and government agencies from punishing or discriminating against doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other health care professionals who refuse to participate in procedures they find morally objectionable—such as abortion, assisted suicide, or certain reproductive services. The bill also protects health care workers from being forced to refer patients to other providers for these services if doing so conflicts with their beliefs.

The law applies broadly across the health care system, including hospitals, clinics, insurance companies, and any organization that receives federal funding. It means that if a health care worker objects to a procedure on religious or moral grounds, their employer cannot fire them, demote them, reduce their pay, or take other adverse actions against them. Additionally, the bill prevents these organizations from being penalized by the government for allowing their employees to opt out of these procedures.

However, this protection has limits. It doesn't apply to emergency situations where a patient's life is in immediate danger and no other provider is available. The bill also doesn't require health care facilities to offer procedures they don't want to provide, but it does protect individual workers within those facilities from retaliation if they personally object. This means patients could potentially face delays or difficulty accessing certain services in areas where many providers have religious objections, though emergency care must still be provided regardless of anyone's personal beliefs.

Defense of Conscience in Health Care Act

Hawley, Josh

Defense of Conscience in Health Care ActThis bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to issue a final rule on protecting statutory conscience rights in health care that is identical or equivalent to the rule titled&nbsp;Protecting Statutory Conscience&nbsp;Rights in Health Care; Delegations of&nbsp;Authority, which was scheduled to take effect on July 22, 2019, but was vacated by courts. Federal law&nbsp;generally prohibits discrimination based on conscience or religious beliefs with respect to federally funded health care programs, including prohibiting recipients of certain federal funding from requiring health care providers&nbsp;to take&nbsp;actions that they find religiously or morally objectionable (e.g., providing&nbsp;referrals for abortions).&nbsp;In 2019,&nbsp;HHS issued a final rule revising the&nbsp;applicable&nbsp;regulations, including imposing certification and cooperation requirements, as well as establishing additional enforcement provisions and penalties. However, this rule was later&nbsp;vacated by federal courts and never took effect. In 2024,&nbsp;HHS issued another final rule that generally applied&nbsp;a pre-2019 enforcement framework while also maintaining certain aspects of the 2019 rule (e.g., specifically designating HHS' Office for Civil Rights as the entity with the authority to handle relevant complaints).The bill requires HHS to reinstate&nbsp;the 2019 rule in its entirety.