Washington- Congressman Joe Pitts (PA-16), the Chairman of the House Values Action Team, applauded the publication today of a final rule by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) meant to protect the freedom of conscience for healthcare professionals.  The right of federally funded health care providers to decline to participate in services to which they object, such as abortion, is affirmed by the regulation issued by HHS.
 
“Healthcare providers deserve reasonable protections to keep from being forced to practice medicine in a way that violates their religious beliefs or moral convictions.  On an issue as fundamental as life, healthcare providers should not be forced to abandon their moral convictions when they come to work.  Congress has already enacted laws to protect this right of conscience.  Now, I applaud the Department of Health and Human Services for finalizing this regulation to better enforce these reasonable protections.”

Background 

The regulations are an attempt to better enforce several laws already enacted by Congress to safeguard the freedom of health care providers to practice according to their conscience.  The new regulation will increase awareness of and compliance with these laws.

Specifically, the regulation: clarifies that non-discrimination protections apply to institutional health care providers as well as to individual employees working for recipients of certain funds from HHS; requires recipients of certain HHS funds to certify their compliance with laws protecting provider conscience rights; and designates the HHS Office for Civil Rights as the entity to receive complaints of discrimination addressed by the existing statutes and the regulation. 

If, despite the Department’s efforts, compliance is not achieved, HHS officials will consider all legal options, including termination of funding and the return of funds paid out in violation of the nondiscrimination provisions.

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