Conscience Protection Act of 2025
Official title: A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to prohibit discrimination against health care entities that do not participate in abortion, and to strengthen im… Show full official titleShow less
Official title: A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to prohibit discrimination against health care entities that do not participate in abortion, and to strengthen implementation and enforcement of Federal conscience laws.
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Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Hearings held.
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.)
- Introduced in Senate Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML
- SCHAERR JAFFE LLP
- LPL FINANCIAL
- GOODLATTE GROUP, LLC F.K.A. ROBERT GOODLATTE
- SECURITIES INDUSTRY AND FINANCIAL MARKETS ASSOCIATION
- SCHAERR JAFFE LLP
- LPL FINANCIAL
Bodies those filers lobbied
- HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
- SENATE
- Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
- Executive Office of the President (EOP)
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
- Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)
- Federal Reserve System
- Homeland Security, Dept of (DHS)
Cite this page
U.S. Congress. (2026). S. 1756: Conscience Protection Act of 2025. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-1756/
"S. 1756: Conscience Protection Act of 2025." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-1756/.
S. 1756, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-1756/.
[S. 1756: Conscience Protection Act of 2025](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-1756/)