On Thursday, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) will introduce the Conscience Protection Act, a bill he introduced in 2019 and again in 2021. Such a bill will protect healthcare workers and insurance plans from government discrimination if they decline to participate in abortions. Under the bill, those who claim to be victims of discrimination have a private right to action. Following unfavorable court decisions and the pro-abortion Biden administration, such a bill is sorely needed.
"The Biden Administration’s failure to enforce conscience protections makes health care workers decide if they should lose their job or violate their beliefs by performing an abortion. Many health care professionals went into their careers to protect life, not take life. Doctors and nurses should never have to make the choice between their career and their conscience. The Conscience Protection Act defends health care workers and empowers them to stand by convictions as they care for their community," Lankford said in a statement.
Concerns over conscience protections predate the Biden administration, though. In 2014, California required health plans to cover abortions, Later that year, the pro-abortion Obama administration opened an investigation, declaring in June 2016 that California could indeed force all health plans to cover elective abortions, even as it violated religious belief and the consciences of employers. It so happened that California Attorney General Xavier Becerra was the one fighting in favor of such a plan, who has now gone on to be the Secretary of Health & Human Services under the Biden administration. Becerra has been fiercely pro-abortion as both California's attorney general and as HHS secretary.
The pro-life Trump administration, meanwhile, has plenty of examples highlighted by Lankford's office. The Conscience and Religious Freedom Division was created, and there was partnership with the Department of Justice (DOJ) on those protections, Vermont and also Becerra in California being punished for refusing to comply with the law. There was also a final rule on "Protecting Statutory Conscience Rights In Health Care" to enforce existing statutory protections, which Lankford supported.
A federal court vacated the conscience rule in November 2019, with litigation continuing at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit with the New York v. HHS case. Lankford led 78 members of Congress in an amicus brief in that case.
Now, under the Biden administration, there's been a proposed rule that Lankford's office notes "would insufficiently enforce conscience protections for medical professionals." In response, and in addition to sponsoring such legislation, Lankford was joined by 17 other Republican senators in March of last year in filing a public comment letter to call for implementation and enforcement of all the statutory conscience protections enacted by Congress.
"Congress has enacted federal conscience statutes that govern HHS-funded programs to 'protect the rights of individuals, entities, and health care entities to refuse to perform, assist in the performance of, or undergo certain health care service sor research activities to which they may object for religious, moral, ethical, or other reasons,'" the letter wrote, also calling for updates to include the 2019 rule from the Trump administration.
"Currently, if a healthcare provider, including insurance plans, refuses to provide abortions, the only recourse is to file a complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR)," Lankford's office notes.
With the Conscience Protection Act, Lankford is joined by Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Steve Daines (R-MT), John Hoeven (R-ND), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Jim Risch (R-ID), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Josh Hawley (R-MO), John Thune (R-SD), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Deb Fischer (R-NE), and Joni Ernst (R-IA).
In the House, another pro-life stalwart, Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), is introducing the bill.
The bill also has the support of numerous pro-life groups, with medical and religious groups among them. Such groups include Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, AAPLOG Action, US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, Alliance Defending Freedom, National Right to Life Committee, EPPC’s HHS Accountability Project, Heritage Action, CatholicVote, Americans United for Life, Concerned Women of America Legislative Action Committee, Family Policy Alliance, and March for Life.
Speaking from the Senate floor in January 2022, when Democrats blocked his bill, Lankford reminded that of the 25 conscience protections laws on the books, "many of these have not been controversial," and passed quite easily.
Some of those laws have not been enforced, though, due to the Executive Branch, Lankford pointed out. He reminded how the Trump administration had enforced such protections, though the Biden administration has not, adding how "curious" it is that Becerra dropped the suit against California when he came in. The administration did the same in Vermont.
Lankford also made clear the bill is "very straightforward" and that while Lankford has introduced other pro-life bills, this one "is very specific," being "just about conscientious objectors, should they be compelled to violate their beliefs by their employer." He also reminded that "we’re very divided on the issue of abortion, but our nation is really not that divided on the issue of conscience protections."
Describing his bill, Lankford made clear it "just gives the ability for that individual to be able to press a suit for their own rights. If the federal government will not enforce the law, this allows that individual to step up and say, 'then I will then file charges that you’re in violation for federal law for this' to protect their rights as a citizen. Quite frankly, it’s not any different than any other citizen would do anywhere else, that if they had a civil violation against them that was clearly in violation of their rights, they would be able to go to court and be able to say my rights have been violated, here is the statute and they’d have their day in court. That is not allowed currently in federal law."
I believe a child that sucks their thumb, wiggles their toes & fingers, feels pain, has a beating heart, has a functioning nervous system, has DNA that's different than the mom or the dad is a baby. pic.twitter.com/Y52hpNfJbK
— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) January 20, 2022
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