Defense of Conscience in Health Care Act

John R. Moolenaar

Republican · MI · Representative

Source: Congress.gov · FEC

No cosponsors on record. Bills can pass without cosponsors — this often means the sponsor introduced the bill alone, either because it's a messaging bill, a chairman's mark, or simply early in the legislative cycle.

Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

2025-04-10

Source: Congress.gov

Defense of Conscience in Health Care Act This 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 Protecting Statutory Conscience Rights in Health Care; Delegations of Authority , which was scheduled to take effect on July 22, 2019, but was vacated by courts. Federal law 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 to take actions that they find religiously or morally objectionable (e.g., providing referrals for abortions). In 2019, HHS issued a final rule revising the applicable regulations, including imposing certification and cooperation requirements, as well as establishing additional enforcement provisions and penalties. However, this rule was later vacated by federal courts and never took effect. In 2024, HHS issued another final rule that generally applied 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 the 2019 rule in its entirety.

Plain-English rewrite of the Congressional Research Service summary published on Congress.gov. Cached and reviewed.

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