119th Congress · introduced in the Senate · Jan 9, 2025
Defense of Conscience in Health Care Act
Official title from Congress.gov
Latest action (Jan 9, 2025): Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
View on Congress.govPolicy area: Health
Congressional Research Service summary, version: Introduced in Senate (Jan 9, 2025)
Defense of Conscience in Health Care Act
This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to issue a final rule on protecting statutory conscience rights in health care that is identical or equivalent to the rule titled Protecting Statutory Conscience Rights in Health Care; Delegations of Authority, which was scheduled to take effect on July 22, 2019, but was vacated by courts.
Federal law generally prohibits discrimination based on conscience or religious beliefs with respect to federally funded health care programs, including prohibiting recipients of certain federal funding from requiring health care providers to take actions that they find religiously or morally objectionable (e.g., providing referrals for abortions).
In 2019, HHS issued a final rule revising the applicable regulations, including imposing certification and cooperation requirements, as well as establishing additional enforcement provisions and penalties. However, this rule was later vacated by federal courts and never took effect. In 2024, HHS issued another final rule that generally applied a pre-2019 enforcement framework while also maintaining certain aspects of the 2019 rule (e.g., specifically designating HHS' Office for Civil Rights as the entity with the authority to handle relevant complaints).
The bill requires HHS to reinstate the 2019 rule in its entirety.
No cosponsors.
Includes amendment, cloture, and procedural votes. Each is labeled with its exact question; only a passage question is a vote to pass the bill.
No recorded roll calls on this bill in coverage.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Introduced in Senate
Actions from Congress.gov, newest first.
Abortion · Administrative law and regulatory procedures · Department of Health and Human Services · Employment discrimination and employee rights · Health personnel · Health programs administration and funding · Higher education · Medicaid · Medical education · Medical ethics · Medical research · Medicare · Religion · Sex and reproductive health · State and local government operations
LD-2 reports whose issue descriptions explicitly cite this bill (bill type and number validated against Congress.gov records). A citation does not establish the client's position or any contact with a member.
Loading lobbying reportsCoverage: reports for 2025 onward, posted Jan 1, 2025 through Oct 24, 2026.
1 citation.
ALLIANCE DEFENDING FREEDOM · lobbying firm or registrant: ALLIANCE DEFENDING FREEDOM
2026 Q2 report (Apr 1, 2026 – Jun 30, 2026) · posted Jul 20, 2026 · issue area: Civil Rights/Civil Liberties
$40,000
Spent on own lobbying
H.R.2896/S.1428, Safeguarding Charity Act, clarifying that certain tax exemptions are not treated as federal financial assistance, all provisions. S.47, Defense of Conscience in Health Care Act, requiring federal agency action to prevent discrimination in health care, all provisions S.1885, Stop the Scroll Act…
Congress inferred from the report year; bill number and the title cited with it match Congress.gov records, and the bill predates the report. The amount is lobbying spending for every issue on this report, not this bill alone, and none of it is paid to any member of Congress. View filing