The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has quietly been working on a policy that would allow healthcare workers to decline to participate in certain procedures and to treat certain patients. If healthcare workers have a moral objection to abortions, treating transgendered people, or providing other services, they would be protected under the new HHS rules and would not need to participate in such treatments.
The so-named “Ensuring Compliance with Certain Statutory Provisions in Health Care; Delegations of Authority” policy is currently under review at the White House Office of Management and Budget. With the “March for Life” planned for this Friday, the Trump administration may unveil the new policy this week.
Securing protections for healthcare workers with moral objections has been a priority for many pro-life groups. President Trump has assured such groups that protections would be extended and that he would sign them into law. Besides the HHS policies, similar protections have also been gaining legislative steam in Congress.
The HHS’s civil rights office is currently under the direction of Roger Severino, who has a long track record of supporting workers on religious grounds.
If implemented, the HHS’s civil rights office would be charged with protecting workers and also punishing those organizations that don’t allow workers to express their moral views. Apparently, the HHS will set up a new division within its civil rights office specifically to ensure compliance and handle complaints.
The Obama administration had previously rolled back similar protections that had been extended by the George W. Bush administration.
The HHS’s civil rights office is currently under the direction of Roger Severino, who has a long track record of supporting workers on religious grounds. Severino previously served as a trial attorney in the Department of Justice. Afterwards, he served as Director of the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society in the Institute for Family, Community, and Opportunity at The Heritage Foundation.
The Obama administration had previously rolled back similar protections that had been extended by the George W. Bush administration. The Bush-era protections caused several dust-ups. For example, some LGBT women were denied fertility treatment, and one woman was denied an ambulance ride to an abortion clinic. These incidents sparked outrage on both sides.
Various civil society groups, including the ACLU, have already promised to challenge the new rules in court. The legal grounds for such a challenge remain unclear.
Critics of such regulations claim that such rules allow health care workers to mistreat patients. For example, some workers have denied end of life treatment. Dying patients could end up being denied access to pain medication and forced to suffer because the health care provider might view such medications as assisting suicide.
Various civil society groups, including the ACLU, have already promised to challenge the new rules in court. The legal grounds for such a challenge remain unclear. When the similar Bush-era regulations were installed, numerous state attorney generals also pursued lawsuits against the federal government. Given how zealous state AGs have been to oppose the Trump administration, more legal challenges are likely.
