WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump's administration announced Thursday that it was taking another step to protect doctors, nurses and other health workers who have religious or moral objections to performing medical services such as abortions or sex-change operations.
The move, which came a day before the annual March for Life in Washington, was a priority for anti-abortion groups. Trump plans to address those marchers today by videoconference.
At an event put on by the Department of Health and Human Services, administration officials urged people to report discrimination to a new unit of the federal government: the conscience and religious freedom division of the office for civil rights at the department.
Roger Severino, the director of the civil-rights office, promised that he and his staff would thoroughly investigate every complaint.
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Critics said the administration was giving health care providers a license to discriminate, and they raised the possibility that some doctors might deny fertility treatments to lesbian couples and that some pharmacists might refuse to fill prescriptions for certain types of contraceptives.
In such situations, patients could suffer and health care workers could violate professional or ethical obligations, they said.
"Donald Trump's administration is handing out permission slips for hospitals and providers to deny individuals, including women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender patients, access to a full range of health services including lifesaving emergency care," said Dawn Huckelbridge, director of the Women's Rights Initiative at American Bridge, a Democratic advocacy group.
Although the civil-rights office has traditionally received few complaints alleging conscience violations, Health and Human Services acting Secretary Eric Hargan on Thursday painted a picture of clinicians under government coercion to violate the dictates of conscience.
"For too long, too many health care practitioners have been bullied and discriminated against because of their religious beliefs and moral convictions, leading many of them to wonder what future they have in our medical system," Hargan told the audience.
"The federal government and state governments have hounded religious hospitals and the men and women who staff them, forcing them to provide or refer for services that violate their consciences, when they only wish to serve according to their religious beliefs," Hargan added.
Severino said that from 2008 to November 2016, the Health and Human Services Department received 10 complaints involving religious and conscience rights. Since Trump won the presidency, the office has received 34 new complaints.
After Hargan spoke, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the No. 2 Republican in the House, provided an example of the kind of case the new office should tackle. McCarthy told the audience that he has "high hopes" that the "arrogance" of a California law known as AB 775 "will be investigated and resolved quickly."
That law, which requires anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers to post information about abortion and other services, is the subject of a free-speech challenge filed by the pregnancy centers that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Supporters of the new office, like the Family Research Council, welcomed it as a way to protect the rights of health care professionals.
Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., said, "No nurse or doctor should lose her job, her livelihood or her profession because of her faith."
But LGBT-rights organizations suggested that some medical providers will be emboldened to shun gay and transgender patients.
"LGBT people have already been turned away from hospitals and doctors' offices," said Rachel Tiven, chief executive officer of Lambda Legal.
"The Orwellian 'Conscience and Religious Freedom' unit simply provides guidance on how they can get away with it."
Huckelbridge of the women's-rights group said: "If there is any doubt about how morally repulsive, politically unpopular, and far-reaching the consequences of this rule will be, crafting it in secret behind closed doors and without public input says all you need to know."
David Wroten, executive vice president of the Arkansas Medical Society, called the new division "totally unnecessary." He said he doubted it would have much impact on health care in Arkansas.
He said he doesn't know of any Arkansas physicians who have complained about being forced to perform procedures that go against their consciences.
"The physician would know when they took the job for the hospital what they are going to be asked to do," Wroten said. "If it doesn't fit their conscience, they don't take the job."
During last year's legislative session, a bill that would have provided additional freedom-of-conscience protections to Arkansas health care providers and insurance companies failed to clear a House committee, with opponents saying it would allow discrimination against gay and transgender people.
Luke McCoy, a lobbyist for the Arkansas Family Council, which supported the bill, said he hasn't heard of complaints from health care providers in Arkansas about being forced to act against their consciences, but the issue has come up in other states.
The new federal office likely won't eliminate the need for more state protections, he said.
"As far as we know, it's not a huge problem that needs to be fixed right now," McCoy said. "However, if we're going to be proactive in this regard, that's kind of where this health care rights of conscience bill here is heading."
Information for this article was contributed by Robert Pear of The New York Times; by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, David Crary and Mark Sherman of The Associated Press; and by Andy Davis of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A Section on 01/19/2018