Conscience Protection Act passes U.S. House

By a vote of 245-182, the U.S. House voted to pass the Conscience Protection Act on July 13.  The goal of this legislation is to strengthen federal law to protect health care providers who are being coerced by state government into providing abortions. 

In a letter to U.S. House members, National Right to Life described the legislation by saying:   

The Conscience Protection Act that will come before the House as S. 304 (containing the same text as H.R. 4828) would prohibit any level of government from mandating that health care providers participate in abortion. It would protect doctors, nurses, hospitals, and health plans (and employers who purchase the plans). Most importantly, the bill empowers those who are affected by abortion mandates to file private lawsuits in federal courts – without the need for intervention by the pro-abortion activists who draw paychecks at the federal Department of Health and Human Services.       

In Michigan, the nine Republican representatives voted in favor of this legislation while the five Democratic representatives voted no.