H.R. 2874: Defense of Conscience in Health Care Act

119th Congress · introduced 2025-04-10 · Health · Latest: Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

federal

Official title

Defense of Conscience in Health Care Act

Plain summary

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.

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in House), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

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Official text

Defense of Conscience in Health Care Act

Source: Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in House)

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Officials and money

Sponsor: Rep. Moolenaar, John R. [R-MI-2] · 0 cosponsors

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Words on this page, explained (2)

Bill: A proposed law. It becomes law only if it passes the legislature and is signed by the president or governor (or a veto is overridden).
Statute: A written law passed by a legislature. A statute can be changed by a later law; changing a constitution needs an amendment.

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Sources

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in House)
Congress.gov
Data: GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (Library of Congress), BILLSTATUS-119hr2874.xml <https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/119/hr>

Record fed-us-cong119-hr2874 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong119 · updated 2026-11-03 by psicol fed-bills