Conscience Protection Act of 2025
The Conscience Protection Act of 2025 would add strong new protections for health care entities that choose not to participate in abortion-related activities. By amending the Public Health Service Act, the bill prohibits the federal government and any entity receiving federal funds from discriminating against such entities for not providing, referring, paying for, or sponsoring abortions, or for not offering abortion coverage. It also creates robust enforcement mechanisms: (1) administrative enforcement through the Department of Health and Human Services (OCR) to investigate complaints and require corrective action, (2) a private civil action allowing affected parties or the Attorney General to sue for violations and seek injunctive, declaratory, and monetary relief, and (3) a broad, coordinated framework that ties into a wide set of existing conscience and religious-freedom protections across multiple federal programs. The bill defines a wide scope of health care entities and clarifies that the new provisions do not override other laws like EMTALA, while adding severability if any provision is struck down.
Key Points
- 1Prohibits discrimination against health care entities that do not participate in abortion, including not providing abortion, abortion referrals, abortion coverage, or related sponsorship, with respect to federal funding and programs.
- 2Creates definitions for key terms:
- 3- Federal financial assistance: includes federal payments, grants, loans, or other support for health care services.
- 4- Health care entity: broad category including individuals, hospitals, clinics, insurers, training programs, and many other entities involved in health care.
- 5- State or local government: includes all agencies receiving federal funds.
- 6Section 245B establishes administrative enforcement:
- 7- The Secretary designates a Director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights to receive complaints, investigate, issue findings, and require corrective action.
- 8- Gives the Secretary authority to induce compliance by terminating or restricting federal funds to noncompliant entities.
- 9- Allows referrals to the Attorney General for civil action.
- 10Section 245C creates a civil action for violations:
- 11- A “designated violation” is an actual or threatened violation of the conscience protections.
- 12- A “qualified party” can be the Attorney General or any adversely affected individual or entity.
- 13- Actions can be brought in federal court without mandatory administrative remedies, and may include governmental entities as defendants.
- 14- Relief available includes injunctive relief, declaratory relief, compensatory damages, and reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs to prevailing plaintiffs.
- 15Strengthens and compiles enforcement of federal conscience laws by listing numerous related authorities (e.g., Church Amendments, Weldon Amendment, Coats-Snowe Amendment, and related provisions across health, labor, and state/federal funding programs) as enforceable under the new framework.
- 16Sec. 4 emphasizes remedies and enforcement, including potential termination of federal funds as a means to induce compliance and the possibility of civil actions, while Sec. 5 preserves severability.