WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
agreed in a July 1 court filing to postpone implementation of a new conscience
protection rule "because it is the most efficient way to adjudicate the
final rule on the merits."
Under the rule, which was to have taken effect July 22, medical
workers or institutions would not have to provide, participate in or pay for
procedures they object to on moral or religious grounds, such as abortion and
sterilization.
President Donald Trump announced the rule May 2 at the White
House Rose Garden during a speech on the National Day of Prayer.
"Just today we finalized new protections of conscience
rights for physicians, pharmacists, nurses, teachers, students and faith-based
charities," Trump said.
The same day Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas,
chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Pro-Life
Activities, and Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, chairman of
the bishops' Committee for Religious Liberty, issued a joint statement
commending the new rule aimed at ensuring existing laws protecting conscience
rights in health care are enforced and followed.
Almost immediately numerous lawsuits, including by a number of
states, were filed against it, arguing that the rule severely limits patient
care access and could deny medical care to women and LGBTQ patients, among
others.
The city of San Francisco was the first jurisdiction to take the
Trump administration to court over the conscience protection rule, filing suit
in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. City Attorney
Dennis Herrera is seeking a preliminary injunction to keep the rule from taking
effect; in the meantime HHS agreed to delay its implementation.
However, the agency's filing said, "HHS does not concede
that plaintiffs are 'likely to succeed on the merits, that (they are) likely to
suffer irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary relief, that the balance
of equities tips in (their) favor, (or) that an injunction is in the public
interest.'"
The rule, issued by HHS and enforced by that department's Office
of Civil Rights, is more than 400 pages long with specific guidelines requiring
hospitals, clinics and universities that receive federal funding through
Medicare or Medicaid to certify that they comply with laws protecting conscience
rights regarding abortion, sterilization and assisted suicide.
"Laws prohibiting government funded discrimination against
conscience and religious freedom will be enforced like every other civil rights
law," Roger Severino, director of the Office of Civil Rights, said in a
statement when Trump announced the rule.
Severino added that it would ensure "health care 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. Protecting conscience and religious freedom not only
fosters greater diversity in health care, it's the law," he said.
Last year, HHS received more than 1,300 complaints alleging
discrimination in a health care setting based on religious beliefs or
conscience issues.