The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is reorganizing its Office for Civil Rights, restoring separate divisions focused on civil rights and conscience and religious freedom.
The restructuring returns the office to a program-based model with three divisions: the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division, the Civil Rights Division and the Health Information Privacy, Data, and Cybersecurity Division. According to a May 18 HHS news release, the office’s Enforcement Division will continue handling complaint intake and reviews of reported breaches involving protected health information.
“This reorganization restores the HHS Civil Rights Division and the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division and strengthens the Office for Civil Rights’ ability to defend religious liberty, enforce conscience protections, and combat unlawful discrimination,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in the release.
The Conscience and Religious Freedom Division was originally established during President Donald Trump’s first term in 2018 to enforce federal laws related to conscience and religious freedom protections in healthcare and human services.
The division operated until March 2023, when the Biden administration dissolved it and merged it with the Civil Rights Division into a Policy Division as part of a broader reorganization. HHS said OCR retained authority over conscience and religious freedom issues after the change.
The department said the new structure is intended to improve the agency’s ability to address issues including conscience rights protections, race-based discrimination, antisemitism and anti-Christian bias.
HHS said the reorganization is not expected to reduce OCR staffing levels.
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