Defense of Conscience in Health Care Act

[AI summary unavailable — showing source text] 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 frame…