HHS (Once Again) Ramps Up Enforcement of Religious Conscience Protections in Health Care

• July 11, 2025

• David O’Neal , Parker Hudson Rainer & Dobbs LLP
• Drew Stevens , Parker Hudson Rainer & Dobbs LLP

Many industry observers will recall that, under the first Trump administration, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) created a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division focused on enforcing federal religious conscience protections for patients and clinicians in health care. Those laws, which include an assortment of federal laws (summarized by HHS OCR online) known as the Church Amendments, the Coats-Snowe Amendment, the Weldon Amendment, and Section 1553 of the Affordable Care Act each seek to protect patients, clinicians, and health care staff from being forced to participate in actions that they find religiously or morally objectionable. Most notably, these laws protect individuals from being discriminated against on the basis that they object to participating in abortion-related care, sterilization procedures, or assisted suicide.

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• Health Care Liability and Litigation Practice Group
• Health Law Policy and Administration Hub