I 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4828 
To prevent governmental discrimination against providers of health services 
who decline involvement in abortion, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 22, 2016 
Mr. FLEMING (for himself and Mrs. HARTZLER) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To prevent governmental discrimination against providers of 
health services who decline involvement in abortion, and 
for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Conscience Protection 
Act of 2016’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds as follows: 
(1) Thomas Jefferson stated a conviction com-
mon to our Nation’s founders when he declared in 
1809 that ‘‘[n]o provision in our Constitution ought 
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to be dearer to man than that which protects the 
rights of conscience against the enterprises of the 
civil authority’’. 
(2) In 1973, the Supreme Court concluded that 
the government must leave the abortion decision ‘‘to 
the medical judgment of the pregnant woman’s at-
tending physician’’, recognizing that a physician may 
choose not to participate in abortion. Roe v. Wade, 
410 U.S. 113, 164 (1973). The Court cited with ap-
proval a policy that ‘‘neither physician, hospital, nor 
hospital personnel shall be required to perform any 
act violative of personally-held moral principles’’, 
410 U.S. at 143 n. 38, and cited State laws uphold-
ing this principle. Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179, 
197–8 (1973). 
(3) Congress’s enactments to protect this right 
of conscience in health care include the Church 
amendment of 1973 (42 U.S.C. 300a–7), the Coats/ 
Snowe amendment of 1996 (42 U.S.C. 238n), and 
the Hyde/Weldon amendment approved by Con-
gresses and Presidents of both parties every year 
since 2004. 
(4) None of these laws explicitly provides a 
‘‘private right of action’’ so victims of discrimination 
can defend their conscience rights in court, and ad-
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ministrative enforcement by the Department of 
Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights 
has been lax, at times allowing cases to languish for 
years without resolution. 
(5) Defying the Federal Hyde/Weldon amend-
ment, California’s Department of Managed Health 
Care has mandated coverage for all elective abor-
tions in all health plans under its jurisdiction. Other 
States such as New York and Washington have 
taken or considered similar action, and some States 
may go farther to require all physicians and hos-
pitals to provide or facilitate abortions. 
(6) Members of Congress have repeatedly ques-
tioned U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary 
Sylvia Burwell about California’s ongoing violation 
which began in August 2014. The Department of 
Health and Human Services has acknowledged Cali-
fornia’s violations and indicated that the Depart-
ment was taking them ‘‘seriously’’ and that the mat-
ter would be resolved ‘‘expeditiously’’. Despite nu-
merous complaints and calls for prompt enforcement 
of the Hyde/Weldon amendment in California, how-
ever, the Department has failed to resolve the mat-
ter. 
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(7) The vast majority of medical professionals 
do not perform abortions, with 86 percent of ob/gyns 
unwilling to provide them in a recent study (Obstet-
rics & Gynecology, Sept. 2011) and the great major-
ity of hospitals choosing to do so in rare cases or not 
at all. Therefore, a policy requiring all health care 
providers to be involved in abortion could seriously 
disrupt the health care system, reducing the number 
and diversity of providers available to serve the basic 
health needs of American women and men. 
(8) A health care provider’s decision not to par-
ticipate in an abortion, like Congress’s decision not 
to fund most abortions, erects no new barrier to 
those seeking to perform or undergo abortions but 
leaves each party free to act as he or she wishes. 
(9) Such protection poses no conflict with other 
Federal laws, such as the law requiring emergency 
stabilizing treatment for a pregnant woman and her 
unborn child when either is in distress (Emergency 
Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act). As the 
Obama administration has said, these areas of law 
have operated side by side for many years and both 
should be fully enforced (76 Federal Register 9968– 
77 (2011) at 9973). 
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(10) Reaffirming longstanding Federal policy 
on conscience rights and providing a right of action 
in cases where it is violated allows longstanding and 
widely supported Federal laws to work as intended. 
SEC. 3. GOVERNMENTAL DISCRIMINATION AGAINST PRO-
VIDERS OF HEALTH SERVICES THAT ARE NOT 
INVOLVED IN ABORTION. 
Title II of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 
202 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 245 the 
following: 
‘‘SEC. 245A. GOVERNMENTAL DISCRIMINATION AGAINST 
PROVIDERS OF HEALTH SERVICES THAT ARE 
NOT INVOLVED IN ABORTION. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other law, 
the Federal Government, and any State or local govern-
ment that receives Federal financial assistance, may not 
penalize, retaliate against, or otherwise discriminate 
against a health care provider on the basis that the pro-
vider does not— 
‘‘(1) perform, refer for, pay for, or otherwise 
participate in abortion; 
‘‘(2) provide or sponsor abortion coverage; or 
‘‘(3) facilitate or make arrangements for any of 
the activities specified in this subsection. 
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