Notice2026-01434
Rescission of Office for Civil Rights Documents Under Executive Order 14192
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
January 26, 2026
Issuing agencies
Health and Human Services Department
Abstract
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) hereby disavows/repudiates or rescinds several documents in keeping with Executive Order 14192, Unleashing Prosperity through Deregulation and consistent with the principles in Executive Order 14219, Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President's "Department of Government Efficiency" Deregulatory Initiative.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 16 (Monday, January 26, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 16 (Monday, January 26, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3207-3209]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-01434]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Rescission of Office for Civil Rights Documents Under Executive
Order 14192
AGENCY: Office for Civil Rights (OCR), Office of the Secretary,
Department of Health and Human Services.
[[Page 3208]]
ACTION: Notice; disavowal/repudiation or rescission of guidance.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office
for Civil Rights (OCR) hereby disavows/repudiates or rescinds several
documents in keeping with Executive Order 14192, Unleashing Prosperity
through Deregulation and consistent with the principles in Executive
Order 14219, Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the
President's ``Department of Government Efficiency'' Deregulatory
Initiative.
DATES: This action is effective upon publication.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David Christensen, Supervisory Policy
Advisor, HHS Office for Civil Rights, (202) 741-8460 or (800) 537-7697
(TDD), or by email at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#6b0804051808020e05080e2b030318450c041d"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="f89b97968b9b919d969b9db890908bd69f978e">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
OCR has determined, under Executive Order 14192, Unleashing
Prosperity Through Deregulation, and consistent with the principles in
Executive Order 14219, Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the
President's ``Department of Government Efficiency'' Deregulatory
Initiative, concerning regulations that are based on anything other
than the best reading of the underlying statutory authority or
prohibition, that several documents previously issued by HHS no longer
represent the views of the Department or this Administration or are
otherwise no longer applicable. OCR is issuing this notice to inform
the public of the views that it disavows/repudiates or rescinds the
listed documents and that covered entities should not rely on these
documents' statements of law and policy to the extent noted below.
Through this deregulatory action, the Office for Civil Rights is
removing guidance that previously created additional compliance costs
through confusion over the meaning of underlying statutory
requirements. To the extent that covered entities were incurring costs
as a result of these guidance documents, this announced rescission will
avert those ongoing costs.
II. Basis for Disavowal/Repudiation or Rescission
Deregulation Item 1: OCR Letter to University of Vermont Medical Center
OCR disavows the legal positions stated in a July 2021 letter it
sent to the University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC) withdrawing
OCR's prior Notice of Violation letter from August 28, 2019.\1\ The
August 2019 Notice of Violation stated that UVMMC violated the Church
Amendments by discriminating against a health care professional by
requiring the professional to violate their conscience and assist in an
abortion.\2\ OCR's 2021 letter took a different interpretation of the
Church Amendments from that of the 2019 letter by concluding that that
the UVMMC did not violate the Church Amendments since those provisions
may need to be interpreted in light of Title VII of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964. OCR's 2021 letter stated that the medical center may only
have obligations to follow the Church Amendments when it does not
experience an undue hardship under the framework in Title VII. The
Church Amendments do not contain any undue hardship exemption. The
legal views stated in OCR's 2021 letter no longer represent the views
of the Department or this Administration. Therefore, consistent with
Executive Order 14192, Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation, OCR
repudiates those views.
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\1\ A similar letter was sent to the attorney for the
complainant on the same day.
\2\ <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/conscience/conscience-protections/uvmmc-letter/index.html">https://www.hhs.gov/conscience/conscience-protections/uvmmc-letter/index.html</a>.
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Deregulation Item 2: 3 Letters Concerning 45 CFR 75.300, RFRA, and
Foster Care
OCR disavows policies and legal conclusions found in three letters
sent on November 2021 (two from OCR to Michigan \3\ and to Texas,\4\
and one from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) to
South Carolina \5\). These three letters in turn withdrew three other
letters previously issued in March 2020 (two from OCR and one from ACF)
granting religious exemptions from grants regulation in place at the
time, 45 CFR 75.300(c), (d). Subsections (c) and (d) of section 75.300
extended non-discrimination principles beyond those required by statute
and case law to require some grant recipients to violate their
religious convictions in order to receive federal funding. The 2020
letters granted exemptions under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act
(RFRA) which allowed religious foster care agencies to operate in
accordance with their faith-tradition, including, in the case of South
Carolina, allowing them to work only with foster care or adoptive
parents of the same religious faith.
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\3\ <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240927035740/https://www.hhs.gov/conscience/religious-freedom/state-letter-to-michigan-withdrawing-exception-from-non-discrimination-requirements/index.html">https://web.archive.org/web/20240927035740/https://www.hhs.gov/conscience/religious-freedom/state-letter-to-michigan-withdrawing-exception-from-non-discrimination-requirements/index.html</a>.
\4\ <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250131145323/https://www.hhs.gov/conscience/religious-freedom/state-letter-to-texas-withdrawing-exception-from-non-discrimination-requirements/index.html">https://web.archive.org/web/20250131145323/https://www.hhs.gov/conscience/religious-freedom/state-letter-to-texas-withdrawing-exception-from-non-discrimination-requirements/index.html</a>.
\5\ <a href="https://acf.gov/sites/default/files/documents/withdrawal-of-exception-from-part-75.300-south-carolina-11-18-2021.pdf">https://acf.gov/sites/default/files/documents/withdrawal-of-exception-from-part-75.300-south-carolina-11-18-2021.pdf</a>.
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The three November 2021 letters withdrawing the three 2020 waiver
letters contained an analysis of RFRA to which HHS and the
Administration no longer ascribe. The 2021 rescission letters stated
that (1) granting the exemptions to the grants regulation requirements
might have limited access to foster care for some children, (2)
preventing these harms supported rejecting an exemption requested by
these states under the RFRA compelling interest test, and (3) the
waiver letters interpreted the statute too broadly by creating a class-
wide exemption throughout a state. Neither the factual predicate
concerning the impact of religious exemptions on foster care youth nor
the legal analysis of RFRA's application to the facts contained in the
2021 withdrawal letters represents the views of the Department or this
Administration. Indeed, after issuing the November 2021 letters, the
previous Administration removed the underlying grants rule's civil
rights policy requirements entirely, for secular and religious entities
nationwide. Promulgating a new grants rule in 2024 that removed these
policy requirements undercuts the proposition that there was a
governmental compelling interest in applying them to objecting
religious entities. The 2021 letters' interpretation of RFRA is no
longer held by this Administration and is therefore repudiated under
Executive Order 14192, Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation, and
covered entities should not rely on it.
Deregulation Item 3: Guidance on Equitable Administration of COVID
Vaccines
OCR disavows views contained in the December 2021 guidance \6\
regarding the equitable administration of vaccines. This Guidance
relies on Executive Order 13995, Ensuring an Equitable Pandemic
Response and Recovery, which was rescinded on January 20, 2025, by
Executive Order 14148, Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders
and Actions. Additionally, policies stated in this guidance no longer
represent the views of the Department or this Administration, and the
public health emergency for the COVID
[[Page 3209]]
pandemic is over. Therefore, OCR repudiates this guidance effective
immediately under Executive Order 14192, Unleashing Prosperity Through
Deregulation, and covered entities should not rely on it.
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\6\ <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-providers/civil-rights-covid19/guidance-federal-legal-standards-covid-19-vaccination-programs/index.html">https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-providers/civil-rights-covid19/guidance-federal-legal-standards-covid-19-vaccination-programs/index.html</a>.
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Deregulation Item 4: Letter Rescinding a Notice of Violation Letter
Concerning California's Violation of the Weldon Amendment Conscience
Protection
OCR disavows legal positions stated in an August 2021 letter \7\
that OCR sent to the Attorney General of California, which withdrew a
January 24, 2020 Notice of Violation letter issued to the Attorney
General of California. The January 2020 Notice of Violation stated that
the State of California violated the Weldon Amendment by mandating
insurance coverage of abortion. The Weldon Amendment is a provision in
the annual Department of Labor, Health and Human Services Act
appropriations statute that restricts funds under the act to a federal
agency or program, or to a state or local government, if it ``subjects
any institutional or individual health care entity to discrimination on
the basis that the health care entity does not provide, pay for,
provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.'' The Weldon Amendment
defines ``health care entity'' to include ``a health maintenance
organization, a health insurance plan, or any other kind of health care
. . . plan.''
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\7\ <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/conscience/conscience-protections/ca-letter/index.html">https://www.hhs.gov/conscience/conscience-protections/ca-letter/index.html</a>.
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The January 2020 Notice of Violation stated that California
violated the Weldon Amendment by discriminating against health care
plans that limited or excluded abortion coverage. OCR's August 2021
withdrawal letter determined that the finding of a violation could not
be sustained because (1) health plan sponsors or employers, including
the complainants, do not meet the definition of ``health care entity''
under the Weldon Amendment; (2) the relevant health insurers that were
subject to the California mandate are protected ``health care
entities'' under the Weldon Amendment, but they did not object to
amending their plans to provide abortion coverage or claim they had
been subject to discrimination under the Weldon Amendment; and (3) the
complainants did not otherwise file their complaints on behalf of an
entity that would have met the definition of a ``health care entity''
under the Weldon Amendment. OCR disavows these legal positions stated
in OCR's 2021 withdrawal letter, which do not represent the views of
the Department or this Administration. Covered entities should not rely
on this letter.
III. Collection of Information Requirements
This Notice creates no legal obligations and no legal rights.
Because this Notice imposes no information collection requirements, it
need not be reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget under the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).
Dated: January 21, 2026.
Paula M. Stannard,
Director, Office for Civil Rights, Department of Health and Human
Services.
[FR Doc. 2026-01434 Filed 1-23-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4153-01-P
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