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HHS Narrows Health Care Workers' Conscience Protections

By Howard M. Friedman

In late 2008, the Department of Health and Human Services adopted a broad set of regulations to protect health care providers who have moral or religious objections to performing various health care services. (See prior posting.) Lawsuits were quickly filed challenging the rule as, among other things, interfering with a woman's right to contraceptive and reproductive health care services. (See prior posting.) With the advent of a new administration in 2009, HHS proposed a repeal of these broad rules in favor of narrower protections focusing only on individuals who object to providing abortion services. (See prior posting.) On Thursday, HHS, after reviewing over 300,000 comments received on its proposals, adopted a final rule which, while not totally repealing the 2008 rule, eliminated much of it. (Full text of HHS release.) As explained by the Washington Post:

The decision guts one of President George W. Bush's most controversial legacies: a rule that was widely interpreted as shielding workers who refuse to participate in a range of medical services, such as providing birth control pills, caring for gay men with AIDS and performing in-vitro fertilization for lesbians or single women....

The new rule leaves intact only long-standing "conscience" protections for doctors and nurses who do not want to perform abortions or sterilizations. It also retains the process for allowing health workers whose rights are violated to file complaints....

The rule will retain a provision that empowers the HHS Office of Civil Rights to investigate any complaints by workers who believe their rights under existing federal law were being violated.....  That office also will launch "a new awareness initiative for our grantees . . . to ensure they understand the statutory conscience protections," according to an HHS statement.

[Thanks to Steven H. Sholk for the lead.] 

Full post as published by Religion Clause on February 19, 2011 (boomark / email).