HHS Creates New Division to Address Religious Objections from Healthcare Workers

​A new division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will make it easier for doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals to opt out of providing services that contradict their religious or conscience beliefs, HHS announced on January 18, 2018. The rule was published in the Federal Register on January 19, 2018. The Conscience and Religious Freedom Division will be a part of HHS's Office for Civil Rights. HHS said the division is being established "to restore federal enforcements of our nation's laws that protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious freedom."