Title: Conscience Protections for Health Care Providers | HHS.gov
Headings: Conscience Protections for Health Care Providers
Conscience Protections for Health Care Providers
Your Conscience Rights
Federal Statutory Health Care Provider Conscience Protections
The Church Amendments
Public Health Service Act § 245
The Weldon Amendment
The Affordable Care Act
How to File a Conscience Complaint
Resources
Has Your Conscience or Religious Freedom Been Violated?

Content: The Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act ( Pub. L. No. 111-148 as amended by Pub. L. No. 111-152) includes new health care provider conscience protections within the health insurance Exchange program. Section 1303 (b) (4) of the Act provides that “No qualified health plan offered through an Exchange may discriminate against any individual health care provider or health care facility because of its unwillingness to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.” A recent Executive Order affirms that under the Affordable Care Act, longstanding federal health care provider conscience laws remain intact, and new protections prohibit discrimination against health care facilities and health care providers based on their unwillingness to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions. Executive Order 13535, “Ensuring Enforcement and Implementation of Abortion Restrictions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (March 24, 2010). Additionally, Section 1553 of the Affordable Care Act (42 USC § 18113) - PDF incudes conscience protections regarding assisted suicide. “ The Federal Government, and any State or local government or health care provider that receives Federal financial assistance under this Act (or under an amendment made by this Act) or any health plan created under this Act (or under an amendment made by this Act), may not subject an individual or institutional health care entity to discrimination on the basis that the entity does not provide any health care item or service furnished for the purpose of causing, or for the purpose of assisting in causing, the death of any individual, such as by assisted suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing.”