‘REFUSE’: Top HHS Official Gives Message to Medical Students Pressured to Perform Abortions

Democrats Push DOJ to Prosecute Kristi Noem After Trump Ousts Her From DHS

Cuba’s National Electric Grid Collapses, Leaving Millions Without Power

Union Suit Claims Trump-Airport Security Rule Ousted Immigrant Workers

EXCLUSIVE: Lawmakers to Probe Whether Free Education Incentivizes Illegal Immigration

‘Largest Deportation in History’? Why the GOP Is Divided Over This Immigration Question

What to Know About Judge Who Blocked Trump Immigration Court Reform

Poll Reveals Popularity of Trump’s Iran Performance

  PoliticsSecurityNews

Weaponized Immigration Methods Aimed at America

Why Chinese Communist Media Is Touting the US Constitution

China Receiving ‘Mixed Signals’ on US Operation in Iran

Not Just the Ayatollah—How Operation Epic Fury Is Remaking Geopolitics

EXCLUSIVE: Americans for Prosperity Action Endorses Husted

EXCLUSIVE: Lawmakers to Probe Whether Free Education Incentivizes Illegal Immigration

‘Why Would You Wanna Punish All These Workers?’: Sen. Fetterman Slams Fellow Dems Over HHS Shutdown

 EducationPoliticsNews

EXCLUSIVE: Bill to Dismantle Taxpayer-Funded Democrat ‘Talent Pipeline’ Expected to Pass House Committee

What’s on Voters’ Minds? Polls Suggest These 3 Issues

Senate Passes Bipartisan Housing Package as SAVE Act Pressure Builds

Why the Real Fight Over Virginia’s Partisan Map to Reshape Congress May Come After Referendum

DOJ Review of Voter Rolls Uncovers Alarming Names—and It’s Only the Beginning

Netanyahu Refutes Death Rumor With Coffee Run

Hegseth: Iran’s Leader ‘Wounded and Likely Disfigured’

Does Iran Still Have a War Strategy?

Iran Indicates Khamenei’s Hardline Son Will Be Next Supreme Leader

Beyond the Oyster Fork: An Etiquette Expert’s Tips for ‘Relationships, Work, and Life’

Is the Iran Operation ‘America First’?

 International Commentary

Russia Operating ‘Systematic Child Abduction Operation,’ EU Ambassador Says

Meet the People Fueling Chaos in Minneapolis, New York, and Beyond 

While Some Allies Hesitate, Israel Is Already in the Fight Against Iran

Victor Davis Hanson: Why Kristi Noem Failed at DHS

Victor Davis Hanson: Newsom’s Rocky Month Shows the Risks of Running on Style Over Substance

Victor Davis Hanson: Trump Laid Out America’s Comeback While Democrats Sat Silent

‘REFUSE’: Top HHS Official Gives Message to Medical Students Pressured to Perform Abortions

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / @TheElizMitchell

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell is the White House Correspondent for "The Daily Signal." Send her an email.

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 Health and Human Services is “working hard to make sure that conscience protections for physicians, nurses, healthcare professionals, and healthcare 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 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 Kennedy have made.”

Why Trump’s HHS Gave Planned Parenthood Tens of Millions in Funding Back

EXCLUSIVE: Trump Moves to Claw Back Taxpayer Funds for Immigrant Children’s Abortions

EXCLUSIVE: HHS Axes Multimillion-Dollar Blue State Abortion Grant Program

Read the first chapter of The Woketopus right now for FREE

Today, even with President Trump’s victory, leftist elites have their tentacles in every aspect of our government.

The Daily Signal’s own Tyler O’Neil exposes this leftist cabal in his new book, The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.

In this book, O’Neil reveals how the Left’s NGO apparatus pursues its woke agenda, maneuvering like an octopus by circumventing Congress and entrenching its interests in the federal government.

You can read the first chapter of this new book for FREE in this eBook, The Woketopus: Chapter One using the secure link below.

The Tony Kinnett Cast

The Daily Signal Podcast

© 2025 The Daily Signal Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

We use cookies on our website. By using our website, you consent to cookies.  Learn More .  

© The Daily Signal