The Trump administration announced an expanded “conscience rule” on Thursday that protects health care employers and workers who oppose abortion, sterilization, assisted suicide and other medical procedures on religious or moral grounds.

“Every citizen has the absolute right to live according to the teaching of their faith and the convictions of their heart,” President Trump said during a ceremony celebrating the National Day of Prayer in the White House Rose Garden. “This is the bedrock of American life. To protect this heritage, my administration has strongly defended religious liberty, two words you haven’t heard much about for a long period of time, but now you’re hearing all the time—religious liberty.”

The 440-page rule—“Protecting Statutory Conscience Rights in Health Care”—was issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and is designed to protect the religious rights of health care providers and religious institutions. Under the rule, if health care institutions fail to respect the conscience and religious freedom rights of their employees, they risk the loss of federal funding.

The rule was first proposed in January 2018, along with the launch of the HHS’s new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division.

“This rule ensures that healthcare entities and professionals won’t be bullied out of the health care field because they decline to participate in actions that violate their conscience, including the taking of human life,” said Roger Severino, director of the HHS Office of Civil Rights. “Protecting conscience and religious freedom not only fosters greater diversity in healthcare, it’s the law.”

A Barna Group survey released last month revealed that U.S. faith leaders’ top religious freedom concern was “religious hospitals being required to perform abortions and other services they deem to violate their religious convictions,” with 71 percent deeming it a “major or extreme” threat.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, wrote in his daily “Washington Update” blog, “After a long journey through the rule process, President Trump is finally closing a chapter on one of the worst assaults on religious liberty in a generation. … Our deepest thanks to an administration who is not wavering in its determination to protect our most sacred property—conscience.”

In addition, the HHS has taken it one step further by changing the Office of Civil Rights’ mission statement to include the protection of religious freedom. It now reads, “OCR investigates complaints, conducts compliance reviews, vindicates rights, develops policy, promulgates regulations, provides technical assistance, and educates the public concerning our nation’s civil rights, conscience and religious freedom, and health information privacy and security laws.”

Header Image: Roger Severino, director of the HHS Office of Civil Rights

Photo Cred.: Alamy.com