Do No Harm Act

Key Points

• This bill amends the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) so that religious beliefs can no longer be used as a legal excuse to discriminate against others or deny them protections under federal civil rights laws, disability rights laws, family leave laws, and domestic violence protections.
• Religious exemptions could no longer be used to deny people access to healthcare services, medical information, referrals, or insurance coverage. This is designed to protect patients whose employers or providers might otherwise cite religious objections to withhold care.
• Employers would not be able to use RFRA to avoid paying wages, benefits, or leave they owe workers, and protections for collective workplace activity (like union organizing) would also be shielded from religious exemption claims.
• Organizations receiving government funding through contracts or grants could not use religious beliefs to refuse providing promised services to the people those programs are meant to help.
• The bill also clarifies that RFRA can only be used in lawsuits where the government is a party, preventing private individuals or businesses from using the law as a shield against each other in private disputes.
• The bill includes protections against using religious exemptions to bypass child labor, child abuse, and child exploitation laws.

Votes

No votes have been recorded for this legislation yet.