Christians Score Big Win as Trump Responds to Transgenderism in Epic New Proposal
If you believe in religious liberty, then prepare to smile.
President Donald Trump’s administration plans to unveil an overhaul of the Department of Health and Human Services that will include the addition of a new division dedicated to protecting the religious liberty rights of health care workers.
Slated to be revealed Thursday morning, the plan involves establishing a Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in the HHS Office for Civil Rights that will protect health care workers who prefer to not perform certain services “for which they have religious or moral objections,” according to Politico.
As an example of whom the new division might protect, consider the case of a health care professional who would rather not perform an abortion.
As shocking as it sounds, some health care workers were “pressured, required and forced to provide morally-controversial elective procedures (such as non-therapeutic abortions)” during the Obama years, as reported by CNS News in 2016.
The policies of former President Barack Obama’s administration likewise forced health care professionals who specialized in gynecological services to provide a hysterectomy (the surgical removal of a uterus) to so-called transgender men, according to a report from The Heritage Foundation.
These workers would also be protected by the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division.
The division would specifically “conduct compliance reviews, audits and other enforcement actions to ensure that health care providers are allowing workers to opt out of procedures when they have religious or moral objection,” according to Politico.
And it would serve as a “third, co-equal branch with the office’s existing two divisions that focus on federal civil rights laws and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.”
In a news briefing published Thursday morning, hours before the grand announcement was to to take place at the department’s headquarters, HHS wrote that the formation of a religious liberty division “will provide HHS with the focus it needs to more vigorously and effectively enforce existing laws protecting the rights of conscience and religious freedom.”
Correct.
As a reminder, here’s what the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights explicitly states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
OCR Director Roger Severino further rightly noted that these “are just empty words on paper if they aren’t enforced.”
Very true.
“(T)he new division will help guarantee that victims of unlawful discrimination find justice,” he said. “For too long, governments big and small have treated conscience claims with hostility instead of protection, but change is coming and it begins here and now.”
If you believe in religious liberty, you ought to be smiling by now. Of course, if you believe in President Donald Trump, you should have already known this day would one day come. Remember, the president vowed to protect Americans’ religious liberty rights, and as far as I can tell, he has yet to break a single promise.
H/T The Daily Caller
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