HHS Revives Religious Freedom Division in Civil Rights Office Restructuring, by Elise Winland

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced May 18 that it is reviving a dedicated division focused on religious freedom and conscience protections as part of a broader reorganization of its Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

President Donald Trump created the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in 2018 during his first administration, but the Biden administration dissolved it in 2023, folding conscience and civil rights work into a single policy division, according to an HHS press release.

HHS said the restructuring returns OCR to a program-based structure with three distinct divisions: the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division, the Civil Rights Division, and the Health Information Privacy, Data, and Cybersecurity Division. According to the agency, the changes will help the OCR — HHS’s main enforcement arm — “advance the protection of conscience rights, address race-based discrimination in a color-blind manner, eradicate antisemitism and anti-Christian bias, and restore biological truth.”

The move follows an April 30 Department of Justice report examining what the department described as widespread anti-Christian bias in federal policies. The report criticized former HHS policies of forcing providers to offer “gender affirming care for minors,” arguing some health care workers concluded religious exemptions were limited or did not exist

In March, the OCR also began investigating allegations that 13 states were forcing health care entities to pay for abortions despite conscience objections, Zeale News previously reported. The office has also moved to protect religious exemptions for childhood vaccine mandates, conscience protections for healthcare workers, and equal treatment for faith-based health care providers.

The reorganization comes after several Biden-era HHS policies drew lawsuits and criticism from religious liberty advocates and Catholic organizations. Under the Biden administration, the agency scaled back some conscience protections for health care workers and interpreted the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act as requiring doctors to perform abortions in certain “emergency” situations.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in the release that the reorganization will bolster the office’s ability to defend religious liberty and conscience protections and enforce federal civil rights laws.

“Under President Trump’s leadership,” Kennedy said, “HHS will defend these rights with clarity, accountability, and resolve.”

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