HR3411-119

What This Bill Does

The Conscience Protection Act amends the Public Health Service Act to prohibit the federal government, federal-aid recipients, and state or local governments receiving federal financial assistance from penalizing, retaliating against, or discriminating against a health care entity because it declines to provide, perform, refer for, pay for, cover, or facilitate abortion. It preserves voluntary participation in abortion, competency standards for those who elect to perform abortions, emergency stabilizing treatment law, and most state insurance regulation. It then creates HHS administrative enforcement authority over a long list of federal conscience laws, including the Church Amendments, Weldon Amendment, RFRA as applied to HHS programs, ACA abortion and conscience provisions, assisted-suicide funding limits, CAPTA conscience protections, Helms Amendment-related provisions, and other statutes. A qualified party, including the Attorney General or any adversely affected individual or entity, may sue without exhausting administrative remedies. Relief may include injunctions, declaratory relief, compensatory damages, money damages against governmental entities, and prevailing-plaintiff attorneys' fees and costs.

Who Benefits and How

Health care entities objecting to abortion benefit because federal-aid recipients and governments cannot discriminate against them for nonparticipation. Religious hospitals benefit from administrative and judicial enforcement of conscience laws tied to HHS programs and federal funding. Clinicians with moral objections benefit because qualified parties can sue for actual or threatened conscience-law violations. The Attorney General benefits from express authority to bring civil actions over designated violations.

Who Bears the Burden and How

State health agencies receiving federal funds must avoid penalties or funding conditions that discriminate against covered nonparticipating entities. Hospitals requiring abortion participation may face lawsuits, injunctions, damages, fees, and administrative enforcement. HHS civil rights staff must issue regulations and enforce a broad set of conscience statutes. Abortion-rights advocates bear a policy burden because the bill strengthens refusal rights and litigation tools.

Key Provisions

• Prohibits discrimination against health care entities that decline abortion participation, referral, payment, coverage, or facilitation.
• Authorizes HHS regulations and administrative enforcement for listed federal conscience laws.
• Creates civil actions by the Attorney General or adversely affected parties without exhaustion of administrative remedies.
• Provides injunctive relief, declaratory relief, compensatory damages, money damages against governmental entities, attorneys' fees, and costs.
• Preserves voluntary abortion participation, emergency stabilizing treatment rules, and severability.