A new office at the Department of Health and Human Services dedicated to protecting religious freedom of health care workers received 300 complaints in a month.
“We’ve announced to the world that we’re open for business and the public is responding,” Roger Severino, the director of the Office for Civil Rights, said in a statement to The Hill.
In the past, the Office for Civil Rights has primarily focused on enforcing anti-discrimination and privacy laws.
HHS officials said the new division was necessary so health workers do not have to violate their religious or moral beliefs to do their jobs.
“No one should be forced to choose between helping sick people and living by one’s deepest moral or religious convictions, and the new division will help guarantee that victims of unlawful discrimination find justice,” Severino said during the announcement in January.