HHS probes Michigan healthcare system's firing of employee opposed to 'sex trait modification procedures'

The Trump administration initiated a probe of an unnamed healthcare provider in Michigan for reportedly refusing to grant a religious accommodation to and firing an employee who did not wish to participate in so-called gender transition procedures. 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights said in a statement Friday that it "launched an investigation into a major health system in Michigan" amid allegations that "an organizational health care provider within that system allegedly fired a medical professional for exercising her Federally protected rights of conscience." 

"The medical professional allegedly requested religious accommodations from certain employment practices, such as practices requiring use of patient pronouns that do not align with the patient’s sex, and from assisting in certain sex trait modification procedures, which she opposed due to her religious beliefs," the HHS announcement reads. 

HHS is investigating whether the provider violated the Church Amendments, which prohibit entities that receive federal grants from requiring individuals to "perform or assist in the performance of any part of a health service program or research activity funded in whole or in part under a program administered by the Secretary of Health and Human Services if [their] performance or assistance in the performance of such part of such program or activity would be contrary to [their] religious beliefs or moral convictions."

"OCR is committed to enforcing Federal conscience laws in health care," said OCR Director Paula Stannard. "Health care workers should be able to practice both their professions and their faith."

The HHS investigation is the latest example of the Trump administration taking action to protect healthcare providers' conscience rights. Last month, HHS initiated a review of a hospital that allegedly forced employees to assist in abortions in violation of their religious beliefs. 

Although HHS declined to name the facility, news of the probe coincided with reports from the American Center for Law and Justice that it had been in contact with the Trump administration over Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, reportedly forcing pro-life ultrasound technicians to perform abortions despite their pro-life views.

In April, HHS released a statement announcing that the investigation of a "major pediatric hospital" for terminating a nurse who requested a religious accommodation so she did not have to prescribe puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to trans-identified children.

The Trump administration's probe sought to determine whether the nurse's termination constituted a violation of the Church Amendments. 

In a statement issued in January, shortly after the Trump administration took office, HHS said it would prioritize and strengthen the "enforcement of many of our nation's laws that protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious exercise."