154 
ates, subsidiaries, or clinics of such entity, under 
title X of the Public Health Service Act in fiscal 
year 2016 exceeded $23,000,000. 
(c)(1) END OF PROHIBITION.—The definition in 
subsection (b) shall cease to apply to an entity if such enti-
ty certifies that it, including its affiliates, subsidiaries, 
successors, and clinics, will not perform, and will not pro-
vide any funds to any other entity that performs, an abor-
tion as described in subsection (b)(1)(C). 
(2) REPAYMENT.—The Secretary of Health 
and Human Services shall seek repayment of any 
Federal assistance received by any entity that had 
made a certification described in paragraph (1) and 
subsequently violated the terms of such certification. 
(RESCISSION) 
SEC. 530. Of the unobligated balances in the ‘‘Non-
recurring expenses fund’’ established in section 223 of di-
vision G of Public Law 110-161 $560,000,000 is re-
scinded. 
(RESCISSION) 
SEC. 531. Of the funds made available for fiscal year 
2018 under section 3403 of Public Law 111–148, 
$15,000,000 are rescinded. 
SEC. 532. Amounts deposited in the Child Enroll-
ment Contingency Fund prior to the beginning of fiscal 
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year 2018 under section 2104(n)(2) of the Social Security 
Act and the income derived from investment of those 
funds pursuant to section 2104(n)(2)(C) of that Act, shall 
not be available for obligation in this fiscal year. 
(RESCISSION) 
SEC. 533. Of the unobligated balances of amounts ap-
propriated under section 1101(g) of Public Law 111-148 
(42 U.S.C. 18001(g)), $323,000,000 is rescinded. 
(RESCISSION) 
SEC. 534. Of the funds made available for purposes 
of carrying out section 2105(a)(3) of the Social Security 
Act, $88,613,000 are hereby rescinded. 
(RESCISSION) 
SEC. 535. Of any available amounts appropriated 
under section 301(b)(3) of Public Law 114–10, 
$3,945,905,000 are hereby rescinded. 
SEC. 536. (a) This section may be cited as the ‘‘Con-
science Protection Act of 2017’’. 
(b) 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 
to be dearer to man than that which protects the 
rights of conscience against the enterprises of the 
civil authority’’. 
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(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 Weldon amendment approved by Congresses 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-
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. 
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(5) Defying the Federal Weldon amendment, 
California’s Department of Managed Health Care 
has mandated coverage for all elective abortions 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 hospitals to pro-
vide or facilitate abortions. On June 21, 2016, the 
Obama Administration concluded a nearly two-year 
investigation of this matter by determining that 
California’s decision to require insurance plans 
under the California Department for Managed 
Health Care authority to cover all legal abortion 
services did not violate the Weldon amendment. 
Until the new Administration is able to reverse this 
finding, individuals will have to choose between ig-
noring their conscience or forgoing health care cov-
erage. 
(6) 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. 
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(7) 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. 
(8) 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 
previous Administration has said, these areas of law 
have operated side by side for many years and both 
should be fully enforced (76 Fed. Reg. 9968–77 
(2011) at 9973). 
(9) 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. 
(c) Title II of the Public Health Service Act (42 
U.S.C. 202 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 
245 the following: 
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