VA Facility Forces Physician Out Over Conscience Objections on Abortion – ACLJ Files Complaint With HHS

At the ACLJ, we unfortunately regularly witness government agencies testing the boundaries of religious liberty. Few cases illustrate the stakes as clearly as the one we filed today on behalf of our client, a physician, with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights.

Under the Biden Administration, a highly qualified, board-certified internal medicine physician with years of exemplary service at a Veterans Affairs medical center faced an impossible choice: violate his deeply held Christian beliefs by prescribing abortion-inducing drugs or lose his ability to serve veterans. When he and his entire emergency department invoked federal conscience protections, leadership responded with threats and coercion.

The physician, our client, ultimately resigned rather than compromise his faith. Later, when he sought to return in a clinical role, the offer was personally rescinded by the same leadership.

This is not abstract policy disagreement. It is textbook discrimination against a physician because of his religious and moral convictions regarding abortion.

Take action with the ACLJ and stop forcing medical personnel to perform abortions.

This case did not occur in a vacuum. Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, the Biden Administration aggressively moved to expand abortion access through federal agencies – including the Department of Veterans Affairs. In 2022, the VA announced it would begin providing abortion services and counseling at its facilities. The ACLJ opposed these efforts, concerned that – in addition to violating federal law – this move would inevitably pressure or punish pro-life medical professionals who hold sincere religious objections. Our concerns, unfortunately, have proven well-founded.

Federal law could not be clearer. The Church Amendments (42 U.S.C. § 300a-7) expressly prohibit entities receiving federal funds from discriminating in employment, staff privileges, or promotions based on a physician’s religious or moral objections to abortion. The Weldon Amendment and Coats-Snowe Amendment provide additional layers of protection, barring discrimination against health care entities and individual physicians who decline to participate in, refer for, or facilitate abortions.

These statutes exist for precisely this situation. Congress recognized that forcing medical professionals to participate in procedures that violate their core beliefs undermines both religious liberty and the integrity of the medical profession. Yet here, a VA facility under the Biden Administration conditioned continued employment and future opportunities on our client’s’s willingness to facilitate abortions – and retaliated when he refused.

Our client’s convictions are sincere and rooted in Scripture. He believes every human life bears the image of God and that participating in the intentional ending of innocent life conflicts with his faith. Federal law protects that belief. It does not require physicians to check their conscience at the door when they enter public service.

What makes this case particularly troubling is the pattern. Leadership told our client that he could “get on board or find another job.” They attempted to rescind his conscientious objection waiver. Even after he left, the same official appears to have blocked his return. These actions send a chilling message to every health care professional who holds pro-life convictions: Your faith may cost you your career in federal service.

This should concern every American. If the government can force physicians to choose between their faith and their livelihood in one context, that precedent threatens conscience rights across medicine, education, and social services. Veterans deserve excellent care delivered by professionals of integrity – not a system that purges those whose moral convictions differ from the current Administration’s priorities.

At the ACLJ, we have long defended the right of medical professionals to practice according to their conscience. We have fought compelled speech cases before the Supreme Court and defended nurses, pharmacists, and physicians nationwide. The law is on the side of conscience protection, and we intend to hold this VA facility accountable.

We are asking the HHS Office for Civil Rights to:

• Fully investigate these allegations of discrimination;
• Find that the facility violated federal conscience statutes;
• Require meaningful corrective action, including robust religious accommodation policies; and
• Ensure no future retaliation against physicians of faith.

Protecting conscience is not a partisan issue. It is a foundational American principle. No physician should have to abandon their deepest moral convictions to serve those who sacrificed for our country.

The ACLJ will continue standing with this physician and others like him. We will not rest until federal agencies understand that conscience protections are not suggestions – they are binding law that must be enforced.

Sign our petition to defend these brave medical personnel.