ACLJ Files HHS Complaint: Massachusetts Department of Public Health Targets Faith-Based Pro-Life Centers in Violation of Federal Conscience Laws

Our client is a pro-life doctor who has helped save hundreds of babies’ lives, but pro-abortion forces are now aligned against him. Today we are taking decisive federal action to stop the outrageous Leftist campaign against him and the pro-life center he’s dedicated to.

As we informed you previously, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) launched a coordinated campaign to smear and intimidate faith-based pro-life Pregnancy Resource Centers (PRCs) simply because they refuse to provide or refer for abortions. The state did this with the assistance of a private pro-abortion advocacy group called Reproductive Equity Now (REN).

On behalf of A Woman’s Concern, d/b/a Your Options Medical Centers (YOM), a pro-life center, and its medical director, the ACLJ has now filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) alleging violations of the Church Amendments, the Weldon Amendment, and the Coats-Snowe Amendment. These federal laws protect healthcare entities and providers from discrimination when they decline to participate in abortion on religious or moral grounds.

YOM is a Christian nonprofit medical clinic licensed by DPH since 1999. For more than 25 years it has offered free, comprehensive pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, options counseling, and material support to women facing unexpected pregnancies – services rooted in its religious belief in the sanctity of human life. YOM operates entirely within its license and has never received a single patient complaint in its history. Its only formal complaint came from REN, an ideologically opposed pro-abortion group that partnered with DPH to orchestrate the current campaign.

On January 3, 2024, DPH released two documents in tandem: a press release titled “Maintaining Integrity, Accessibility, and Transparency in Reproductive Care” and a formal Guidance Memo sent to all licensed providers titled “Reminder to Licensees Regarding Licensure Obligations and Providing Standard of Care.” The press release brands “anti-abortion centers” (including licensed clinics like YOM) as deceptive because they refuse to offer abortion, abortion referrals, contraception, or other services DPH deems “comprehensive.” DPH announced a 2024 public-education campaign to steer patients away from these centers, framing their very existence as a “public health crisis.” That campaign continues today.

The Guidance Memo goes further. It singles out medication abortion reversal (APR) – the lawful use of progesterone to help maintain a pregnancy after mifepristone ingestion – as “unproven, unethical, and unsafe.” DPH warns that any physician or advanced practice provider offering APR “could be found to be practicing inconsistently with accepted practice and subject to discipline,” including potential license revocation or referral to the Attorney General. This is the only specific medical practice highlighted in the entire six-page memo as grounds for professional sanction. The message is unmistakable: Pro-life physicians who follow their religious and moral convictions by offering life-affirming care now face heightened regulatory scrutiny.

Take action with us. Sign our petition: Stop Criminalizing Saving Unborn Babies.

These actions are part of a broader, government-orchestrated effort with REN to discredit and harass faith-based centers. As we detailed in our earlier blog, this campaign prompted our federal lawsuit, A Woman’s Concern, Inc. d/b/a Your Options Medical Centers v. Healey, et al., No. 1:24-cv-12131 (D. Mass.). We are currently appealing the district court’s ruling dismissing that case.

DPH’s conduct violates the Church Amendment, which prohibits any HHS-funded entity from discriminating against individuals or healthcare entities that refuse to perform or assist in abortions because it would violate their religious beliefs or moral convictions. The statute expressly protects physicians from adverse actions regarding staff privileges or other benefits based on their convictions about abortion. DPH’s threats to YOM’s medical director – who supervises all clinical services under his license – directly implicate this protection. Since October 2023, the medical director has been under active investigation by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine following a REN complaint tied to YOM’s pro-life practices.

The Weldon Amendment provides additional protection. It bars HHS funds from going to any state agency that discriminates against a healthcare entity because it does not provide, pay for, cover, or refer for abortions. DPH receives and administers HHS Title X funds. By using its authority and platform to punish YOM for its religiously motivated refusal to participate in abortion-related services, DPH has crossed the line Congress drew to safeguard conscience rights.

The harm is real and ongoing. YOM has endured reputational damage and a loss in patients due to the chilling effect of state-sponsored warnings portraying the center as “deceptive.” Further, the medical director’s ability to practice medicine consistent with his faith is under direct threat.

Despite the DPH fully clearing Your Options Medical after an investigation that found no violations, the state escalated the case by continuing a probe into the clinic’s medical director through the Board of Registration in Medicine – triggered by the same complaint. Now, two and a half years later, that investigation into the pro-life doctor remains ongoing – simply because he is helping save lives instead of taking them.

In our HHS complaint , we ask for an immediate investigation, a formal finding that DPH’s actions violate federal conscience laws, and corrective action requiring DPH to cease its discriminatory targeting, public disparagement, and unequal treatment of faith-based pro-life centers. We also request potential suspension or conditions on future HHS funding to DPH for noncompliance, along with coordination with the ongoing federal lawsuit and appeal.

This case is about more than one clinic in Massachusetts. It reveals a national pattern: government officials weaponizing regulatory power and public messaging to coerce healthcare providers into abandoning their pro-life convictions. Federal law rejects that approach. Congress enacted protections precisely to prevent the very viewpoint discrimination DPH is practicing.

At the ACLJ, we will continue to defend the right of faith-based organizations like YOM to serve women with excellence and integrity – without fear of government retaliation. Women facing unexpected pregnancies deserve real support and genuine options, not state-sponsored pressure to choose abortion. By filing this complaint, we stand firm: No state agency may use taxpayer dollars to punish pro-life healthcare providers for living out their faith.

Join us in this fight. Take action with us. Sign our petition: Stop Criminalizing Saving Unborn Babies.