‘REFUSE’: Top Trump official advises med students pressured to perform abortions
Assistant Secretary of Health Dr. Brian Christine urged medical students to “refuse” to perform procedures that violate their consciences.
“If your deeply held religious convictions say that you can’t engage in some activity, for instance, abortion, or a sex-rejecting procedure, stand strong in that,” he told The Daily Signal in an exclusive interview.
“Refuse to do that, and again, reach out to the proper authorities and individuals at their institutions,” he added.
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education currently requires that medical residents with moral or religious objections be allowed to opt out of abortion training.
But pro-life doctors say the opt-out system puts pressure on residents and places them at risk of being targeted for their beliefs if they refuse the training.
Christine spoke to The Daily Signal after addressing the sixth hearing of the White House’s Religious Liberty Commission on Monday.
“I am old enough to have voted for Ronald Reagan, and this administration is the most pro-religion and pro-religious administration that I think I’ve seen in my lifetime and at the Department of Health and Human Services,” he said.
Christine said HHS is “working hard to make sure that conscience protections for physicians, nurses, healthcare professionals, and health care institutions are protected.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Christine, a urologist, said religious physicians like himself were threatened with loss of licensure if they didn’t comply with certain requirements.
“We believe that protecting a person’s deeply held religious convictions and conscience is important,” Christine said. “We’re gonna make sure that these individuals don’t have to bend the knee to some harsh and ambiguous government.”
Christine said he revoked several Biden-era policies to protect freedom of conscience, so that doctors and nurses can’t be coerced into performing abortions.
In June, the Trump administration rescinded a Biden-era mandate that attempted to force emergency room doctors to perform abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.
Christine says his Catholic faith is his “compass” in his role at HHS.
“I take the role to serve the republic and serve President [Donald] Trump seriously,” he said. “And my Catholic faith is a compass that guides me into doing what’s right for our republic and serving the president that way.”
Religion is at the core of the American founding, Christine said.
“Religious liberty is incredibly important, and again, at the Department of Health and Human Services, we stand firm in our support for religious liberty,” he said.
“We’re not just simply saying that we believe in religious liberty,” Christine added. “We’re not simply just saying that we’re gonna protect conscience, we’re actually doing things. We are keeping promises that the president and Secretary [Robert F.] Kennedy have made.”
[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]