The Trump administration has unveiled plans to strengthen religious freedom and conscience protections across US health programmes, prompting praise from supporters and concern from critics who fear the changes could affect LGBTQ rights and reproductive healthcare.
The move follows the publication of a Justice Department (DoJ) report last week examining issues including abortion, vaccine mandates and gender-related medical treatments.
As part of the changes, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said its Office for Civil Rights will focus on "protecting the free exercise of religion and conscience and the right to be free from coercion in HHS-conducted or funded programs".
The department said the policy applies to federal agencies, state and local governments, healthcare providers, health plans and other recipients of HHS funding.
An HHS official told The Guardian that the overhaul is intended to strengthen enforcement by "protecting conscience rights, addressing race-based discrimination in a color-blind manner, combating antisemitism and anti-Christian bias, and restoring biological truth".
Critics, however, have questioned the direction of the reforms and warned they could have unintended consequences for LGBTQ people.
“They are very much putting religious freedom front and center,” Dorit Reiss, a professor at UC Law San Francisco, told The Guardian.
But, she added, “it tends to privilege a conservative form of Christianity and, for example, protect discrimination against LGBTQ people”.
Liz Sepper, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said she believes the plans could result in greater emphasis being placed on pro-life concerns within the department.
"This is, of course, being framed in terms of religious liberty, but it's not really about that," she said.
"I think it's a really clear signal to the right-to-life movement that some of their priorities are going to be coming to the top at the agency."
The Justice Department report also questioned some vaccine mandates, citing concerns raised by vaccine-sceptical campaigners and parents opposed to vaccinating their children.
"These are not traditional things for the government to intervene with," Reiss argued.
The Trump administration is also expected to introduce a new religious conscience rule in the coming months.
