Auto news on Youtube Apr 25 2018

Hello, my name is Roger Severino and I am the Director of the Office for Civil Rights

at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. My office is charged with enforcing

three types of federal civil rights laws: Laws protecting the privacy and security of

health information such as HIPAA; Laws prohibiting discrimination in health and human services

on the basis of race, national origin, age, sex, or disability; and Laws protecting conscience

and religious freedom in health care and human services.

In January of 2018, we launched a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division within the

Office for Civil Rights to make sure our existing conscience and religious freedom laws get

the focused attention that they deserve.

Conscience and religious freedom are fundamental, natural human rights that are protected by

the First Amendment to the Constitution and laws at the federal, state, and local level.

Such protections have been part of our national story since the Founding.

For example, our laws have protected people morally opposed to the taking life in war

since the American Revolution and through the Vietnam War era.

America also has a long tradition of not forcing anyone, including doctors or pharmacists,

to help in the execution of people convicted of capital crimes.

In line with this tradition, the Office for Civil Rights enforces long-standing laws protecting

doctors and nurses who, for example, refuse to participate in the taking of life through

abortion or assisted suicide, and people and institutions that decline to pay, cover, or

refer for abortions.

Patients are also protected from government punishment for declining to receive treatments

or undergo procedures that violate their conscience or religious convictions.To learn more about

our new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division and about all the laws that we enforce, we

encourage you to visit us at hhs.gov/ocr.

If you believe that a covered entity has violated your civil rights, conscience and religious

freedom, or health information privacy, you may file a complaint through our website.

The HHS Office for Civil Rights is dedicated to protecting all of these rights under law,

and we are here to serve you.

Produced by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services at taxpayer expense.