HHS adds religious protections to its Office of Civil Rights website

The Sunlight Foundation’s Web Integrity Project — which documents changes in language on federal websites — finds that the website for HHS’ Office of Civil Rights has been changed to now include religious protections that were not previously outlined. The new language explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, age, sex, and religion, but notably excludes sexual orientation. Additionally, in multiple other places on the revamped webpage, there are new specifications that HHS will prioritize religious freedom and conscience and moral objections. These changes come amid a nationwide ban on transgender individuals serving in the military as well as multiple measles outbreaks across the country fueled partly by people not vaccinating themselves or their children over religious objections.