Courts Order Delay Of Trump Administration's Health Care 'Conscience Rights' Rule

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Source: NPR

Courts Order Delay Of Trump Administration's Health Care 'Conscience Rights' Rule

July 1, 2019 3:30 PM ET
SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN

The federal government's rule designed to support health workers who opt out of providing care that violates their moral or religious beliefs will not go into effect in July as scheduled. The effective date has been delayed by four months, according to court orders.

The "Protecting Statutory Conscience Rights in Health Care" rule was originally issued in May by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights. It aligns with that office's religious freedom priorities and would put new emphasis on existing laws that give health care workers the ability to file a complaint with that office if they are forced to participate in medical care that violates their conscience — such as abortion, gender confirmation surgery, and assisted suicide.

As NPR has reported, the rule also expands the type of workers who are able to file this kind of complaint to billing staff and receptionists and anyone else who in any way "assist[s] in the performance" of a procedure.

Complaints of "conscience rights" violations are relatively rare — for a decade, the office would receive an average of one complaint like this each year. Last year, that number jumped to 343. That number is dwarfed by the number of complaints the Office for Civil Rights receives over issues like health privacy or race, sex and age discrimination, which typically number in the thousands.

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Read more: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/07/01/737712566/courts-order-delay-of-trump-administrations-health-care-conscience-rights-rule

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