President Donald Trump’s health agency announced plans Monday to prioritize enforcement of religious protections through its civil rights office, in a shift from the Biden administration’s efforts to strengthen reproductive rights.
US Department of Health and Human Services acting secretary Dorothy Fink said in a statement that the agency’s Office for Civil Rights will evaluate guidance and regulations involving conscience and religious exercise.
The HHS “is tasked with enforcement of many of our nation’s laws that protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious exercise,” Fink said in the statement. “It shall be a priority of the Department to strengthen enforcement of these laws.”
The announcement follows Trump’s Jan. 24 signing of an executive action reaffirming the Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of federal funds for elective abortion.
Trump’s pick for secretary of the health agency, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will attend nomination hearings in the Senate this week. Kennedy previously supported some abortion rights.
The move marks a shift from former President Joe Biden’s administration, who’s OCR took steps to enforce abortion protections after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
The HHS “will reevaluate all programs, regulations, and guidance to ensure Federal taxpayer dollars are not being used to pay for or promote elective abortion, consistent with the Hyde Amendment,” Fink’s statement said.
Trump also signed an executive action Jan. 24 reinstating the Mexico City policy, under which international nonprofits need to certify that they don’t provide or promote abortion services or counseling in order to continue receiving government funding.
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