Trump civil rights official wants to defend abortion opponents and religious freedom

OCR is now reporting a rise in civil rights complaints related to a person’s moral beliefs

A Trump administration official charged with protecting civil rights has major plans for defending abortion opponents and promoting religious freedom, he said in a rare and wide-ranging interview.

Roger Severino, the director for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights, highlighted his goals to investigate states that require insurance to cover abortion, protect individuals who reject certain vaccinations on religious grounds, and defend students training to be medical providers if they object to participating in abortions.

Severino’s focus was evident when he helped create a division within his office related to religion and moral conscience objections in January 2018. So far, the division has halted two state policies that required pregnancy centers to display information about abortion.

View the complete April 17 article by Sandhya Raman on The Roll Call website here.