YourVoice.Now Summary
Workers & JobsCivil LibertiesYour MoneyTransparency & AccountabilityBars federally funded hospitals, insurers, and states from penalizing health workers who refuse abortion work — and lets them sue for damages.
Workers & Jobs
Any employer that gets federal health money could not fire or punish a worker for saying no to abortion work. This covers nurses, doctors, pharmacists, and students. Older laws mostly protect religious or moral objections. This one needs no reason at all.
Civil Liberties
The ban covers refusing to do, refer for, pay for, or help set up an abortion. It binds the federal government. It also binds any state, city, or group that gets federal health money.
A person or group harmed by a broken conscience law could go straight to court. They would not need to go to HHS first. Winners could get damages and legal fees, even from a state or city.
Your Money
Insurers and the employers who sponsor plans could leave abortion out of coverage. A state that gets federal aid could not penalize them for it. Plans that choose to cover abortion still could.
Transparency & Accountability
The HHS civil rights office must take complaints, investigate, and order fixes. HHS must then cut some or all of its funds to a violator, and it may send cases to the Justice Department to sue.
More about this bill
If you work in health care, your employer could not punish you for refusing to take part in abortions. The rule would reach any hospital, clinic, pharmacy, or insurer that gets federal health money. It would also bind the federal government. States and cities that get federal funds would be bound too. You would not need to give a religious or moral reason to say no. Health plans, and the employers who sponsor them, could refuse to cover abortion. A state that gets federal money could not penalize them for it. That would block state rules that require plans to cover abortion. Pharmacies could also decline to dispense abortion pills without penalty. Emergency-care law would not change. Hospitals must still treat a pregnant woman in an emergency. Anyone who chooses to provide or cover abortions still could. The bill also adds new ways to enforce these rights. The civil rights office at Health and Human Services (HHS) must take complaints and order fixes. HHS must use funding cuts, in part or in full, to force a violator to comply. A state could lose HHS money this way. Anyone harmed could sue without first filing a complaint with HHS. They could win money damages, even from a state or city, plus legal fees. The right to sue covers a long list of federal conscience laws. Some deal with sterilization and assisted suicide, not only abortion. The bill was introduced in the Senate in May 2025.
Congressional Summary
Conscience Protection Act of 2025 This bill explicitly prohibits penalizing health care entities (e.g., health care providers, insurers) for declining to participate in or facilitate abortion services. It also allows individuals to bring civil actions for violations of certain federal conscience laws, and it specifically authorizes Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rulemaking and enforcement relating to such laws. (In general, the existing federal conscience laws referenced in the bill prohibit entities that receive federal funds from requiring providers or patients to participate in health care services they find religiously or morally objectionable.) Specifically, the bill prohibits the federal government and entities receiving federal health-related funding (e.g., states) from penalizing health care entities that decline to provide, refer for, provide insurance coverage for, or facilitate abortions. The bill does not (1) affect federal requirements for providing emergency stabilizing treatment for pregnant women or unborn children, or (2) prevent health care entities from voluntarily participating in or providing coverage for abortions where not prohibited by law. Also, the bill authorizes individuals or entities adversely affected by a violation of a federal conscience law to bring a civil action for relief, including against state governmental entities. Additionally, the bill provides broad statutory authority for HHS to induce compliance with federal conscience laws by terminating HHS funding or referring violations to the Department of Justice for civil actions. It also explicitly authorizes HHS to issue regulations and resolve complaints under such laws. (HHS' Office for Civil Rights currently handles such complaints.)
Legislative Subjects
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- Senate
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in Senate
- Action Date
- 2025-05-14
- Date Added
- 2026-09-25
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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