ACLJ Complaint Triggers VA Investigation on Behalf of Physician Forced Out Over Abortion Conscience Objections

We have another major update in our fight for Dr. Clinton Mohr, the board-certified physician who served as Emergency Department Director and later Chief of Medicine at the Marion VA Medical Center until he was forced to choose between his faith and his career. 

The Department of Veterans Affairs received Dr. Mohr’s conscience complaint, determined that it warranted an investigation, and is moving forward with that investigation. 

This is a significant step.  Dr. Mohr is seeking accountability for what happened to him. Now the agency responsible for the facility where he served has formally opened an investigation into his allegations. 

Here is how we got here. 

In May, the ACLJ filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) on Dr. Mohr’s behalf. We alleged that VA leadership conditioned his continued employment on his willingness to facilitate abortions despite his sincere religious and moral objections, threatened to rescind his conscience waiver, and ultimately forced him out.

As we explained at the time, after the Biden Administration announced in 2022 that VA facilities would begin providing abortion services, Dr. Mohr and his entire Emergency Department filed conscientious objection waivers. Leadership responded with pressure and threats. The Medical Director told Dr. Mohr he was “administration” and could “either get on board or find another job.” Dr. Mohr resigned in June 2023 rather than compromise his faith. 

Later, HHS issued a formal Notice of Referral. OCR acknowledged that our complaint alleged violations of multiple federal conscience protections, including the Church Amendments, the Weldon Amendment, and the Coats-Snowe Amendment. Rather than dismissing the complaint, OCR referred it directly to the VA and asked it to examine the allegations and take appropriate action.

The VA has now done exactly that. After receiving the referral from HHS, along with a formal complaint of discrimination we filed in August through the federal EEO process, the VA has reviewed Dr. Mohr’s complaint, found it sufficient to open an investigation, and has begun that process. 

This matters. Federal conscience protections mean nothing if no one enforces them. A decision to investigate means Dr. Mohr’s allegations will not be set aside or lost in bureaucratic limbo. The VA must now examine how its own leadership treated a physician who did nothing more than ask that federal law be followed. 

The law is clear. Title VII protects federal employees from discrimination based on their religion. The Church Amendments, the Weldon Amendment, and the Coats-Snowe Amendment protect health care professionals who decline to participate in, refer for, or facilitate abortions. These protections exist for precisely this situation. They do not require physicians, including those trusted to lead a department, to check their conscience at the door. 

We are encouraged that the VA has taken these allegations seriously enough to open an investigation. We will continue to press for a full review, a finding that federal conscience and anti-discrimination laws were violated, meaningful corrective action, and assurances that no other VA health care worker will face this kind of pressure again. 

The ACLJ will keep standing with Dr. Mohr, and we will keep you updated as the investigation moves forward. 

Join us. Sign our petition to defend these brave medical professionals and stop forcing doctors and nurses to perform or facilitate abortions.