The Trump administration is moving to strengthen the rights of health care workers who have religious and moral objections to certain procedures, such as abortions.
A policy announced Thursday would finalize broad rules to protect health workers and institutions from having to violate their religious or moral beliefs by participating in abortions, providing contraception, sterilization or other procedures.
President Trump first made the announcement in the Rose Garden during a ceremony for the National Day of Prayer.
"And just today we finalized new protections of conscience rights for physicians, pharmacists, nurses, teachers, students and faith-based charities. They’ve been wanting to do that for a long time," Trump said.The rule represents a major victory for Christian and anti-abortion groups that are close allies of the administration.
The rules also align with the new mission statement of the Department of Health and Human Services’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which was revised this week to emphasize a focus on protecting “conscience and religious freedom.”