The Weekly is a rundown of news by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission highlighting the week’s top news stories from the public square and providing commentary on the big issues of our day.

Explainer: What You Should Know About the Conscience Protection Act

What is the Conscience Protection Act?

The Conscience Protection Act is a legislation introduced in Congress by Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) that will protect health care providers who decline to be involved in abortions as a matter of conscience.

What does the Conscience Protection Act do?

Under current law, the only recourse healthcare providers who are discriminated against because they refuse, as a matter of conscience, to assist or perform abortions is to file a complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The Conscience Protection Act will allow healthcare providers the ability to file a civil suit to seek relief from discrimination without having to file a complaint with the government. In addition, the legislation codifies the Weldon Amendment and the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding of abortion.

What is the Weldon Amendment?

The Weldon Amendment is a law that prevents the government from discriminating against hospitals, doctors, nurses, and insurance plans that decline to provide or pay for abortions. 

Originally passed in 2005, the Weldon Amendment provides that “[n]one of the funds made available in this Act [making appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education] may be made available to a Federal agency or program, or to a state or local government, if such agency, program, or government subjects any institutional or individual health care entity to discrimination on the basis that the health care entity does not provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.” It also defines “health care entity” to include “an individual physician or other health care professional, a hospital, a provider-sponsored organization, a health maintenance organization, a health insurance plan, or any other kind of health care facility, organization, or plan.”

Why is the Conscience Protection Act necessary if we already have the Weldon and Hyde Amendments?

The Weldon and Hyde Amendments have no “right of action,” which would allow those whose conscience rights have been violated to go to court. Instead, the protection is entirely dependent on HHS. During the Obama presidency, the HHS sometimes refused to fully enforce these laws and in other cases made them a low priority.

The HHS was limited in the type of action it could take penalize an institution that violated conscience rights but did not directly receive federal funds.

Has anyone actually been discriminated against for refusing to do abortions?

As Jeff Pickering noted in a recent article for ERLC, several individuals and organization have been discriminated against for refusing to participate in abortions. For example, in 2009, nurse Cathy Cenzon-DeCarlo at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York was forced by her superiors to assist in the dismemberment abortion of a 22-week-old baby. When she objected, she was threatened with the loss of her job. Also, in 2011 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Migration and Refugee Services was denied an HHS grant renewal for serving survivors of human trafficking because USCCB would not commit to referring their survivor clients to healthcare providers that covered abortion.

This week on ERLC podcasts: Daniel Darling talks to Alistair Begg about Spurgeon, pastoral leadership, and Cleveland sports. On the Capitol Conversations podcast, Matthew Hawkins, Travis Wussow, and Jeff Pickering discuss the adoption tax credit, the Conscience Protection Act, and DACA. And on the new ERLC podcast series, “How to Handle,” Trillia Newbell talks to Rachel White about the fight against human trafficking.

Other Issues

American Culture

1 in 5 Americans are "Religious Liminals," Says New Research
Derek Beres, Big Think

You’ve likely seen conflicting headlines like this: “Atheism on the rise.” “Religion experiencing an increase.” “Millennials Less Likely to Be Religious.” “Churches Finding New Ways to Reach Young Audiences.” And so on. The question remains: Are we becoming more or less religious?

Bioethics

Embryology and Science Denial
Patrick Lee and Melissa Moschella, Public Discourse

The HHS has recently—and rightly—described life as beginning at conception. Dr. Richard Paulson’s denial of this claim contradicts the standard scientific position, and his arguments against that claim are fallacious and inaccurate.

Texas defends dismemberment abortion ban
Samantha Gobba, WORLD News Service

Should abortionists be allowed to end the life of an unborn baby by pulling it apart, or should they remove it piecemeal only after its heart has stopped beating?

The Overlooked Risks of Surrogacy for Women
Mary Rose Somarriba, Institute for Family Studies

Surrogate mothers often face unexpected challenges that are too often ignored.

Christianity and Culture

State conventions denounce racism, white supremacy
Tom Strode, Baptist Press

Southern Baptists in at least five state conventions have approved resolutions decrying racism or white supremacy.

Family Issues

Let’s Restart the Adoption Movement
Arthur C. Brooks, New York Times

Many people are anxious about adoption, although the source of those anxieties has changed over the decades.

International Issues

China Tells Christians to Replace Images of Jesus with Communist President
Kate Shellnutt, Christianity Today

Propaganda effort in poor province latest sign of Xi Jinping consolidating control.

Chinese Communist Party Vows to 'Sinicize Religions’ in China
Charlotte Gao, The Diplomat

Remarks at the Congress continue last year’s campaign to force religions to adapt to “socialist society.”

When Human Rights Violations are a National Security Issue: The North Korean Slave Trade
Megan Reiss, Providence

With Kim Jong Un repeatedly testing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and nuclear weapons every few weeks, it’s perhaps understandable that the North Korean slave trade gets relatively little attention from the national media.

Religious Liberty

Now It's Liberal States Clashing With the Federal Government Over Religious Freedom
Emma Green, The Atlantic

California, Pennsylvania, and others have sued over new policies on contraceptive coverage.

Sexuality Issues

Republicans, Democrats have starkly different views on transgender issues
Anna Brown, Pew Research

The American public is fundamentally divided over whether it’s possible for someone to be a gender different from the sex they were assigned at birth, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

Transgender professor awarded $1.1M after school denied her tenure and fired her
Tara Fowler, ABC News

A jury has awarded a transgender professor $1.1 million after she accused her employer of discrimination.