Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission holds 6th hearing, touts health freedom turnaround from Biden-era censorship

The Trump administration’s Religious Liberty Commission held its sixth hearing Monday on threats to religious liberty in the healthcare field, hearing from families, doctors, and religious leaders who faced government pressure to act against their conscience.

The commission was established by President Donald Trump via executive order in May, with a mandate to protect religious liberty through exploring its foundations, identifying threats to it, and developing tactics to protect it for future generations.

Assistant Secretary for Health and Human Services Brian Christine opened the hearing with a sharp rebuke of censorship under the Biden administration, promising the Trump administration is “fighting day and night to put the abominable ways of the past to rest.”

During the Biden-era, “Truth was sidelined. Science was weaponized, and our rights as Americans, as parents and most fundamentally, as humans made in the Imago Dei, the image of God, were infringed upon,” he said. “Our citizens were coerced, they were lied to, and they were intimidated with fear. Physicians like myself and nurses were threatened with loss of license.”

Christine outlined administration efforts to end federal support for irreversible gender procedures on minors and said Trump is “committed to restoring a culture that champions life.” That starts by “ending taxpayer funding for abortion and protecting conscience rights for Americans who should never have to check their morals at the door to practice their profession.”

Witnesses included Abby Sinnett, a women’s health nurse practitioner in Colorado whose practice offers progesterone, a hormone used to treat miscarriage risks, infertility, and to reverse the abortion pill. Her clinic has seen “dozens of healthy babies” born after the mother had already taken one pill of the two-step chemical abortion regimen and changed her mind. Yet the state targeted progesterone, specifically outlawing it for use as an abortion pill reversal method while allowing it for other uses.

“So in other words, according to Colorado, you have the right to choose abortion, but you do not have the right to change your mind,” she said. “And that prohibition was a ridiculous violation of my religious convictions as a health care provider.” Since Sinnett’s clinic faced financial fines and risked losing its license if it didn’t comply with Colorado’s law, the practitioners sued, prevailing in court after two years of litigation – and saving at least 20 babies since filing the lawsuit, she said.

“But make no mistake, abortion pill reversal is still under attack – in states like California and New York, they are still targeting religious providers who offer abortion pill reversal,” Sinnett warned. “As commissioners, you have the opportunity to strengthen free exercise and conscience protections for religious health care providers and patients across the country.”

Other witnesses included Dr. Eithan Haim, a general surgeon at the largest children’s hospital in the U.S., Texas Children’s Hospital. As the whistleblower who exposed that the hospital was concealing a transgender medicine program, Haim said he was targeted by the Biden Justice Department, which sent armed agents to his house, put him under surveillance, leaked his name to online activists who left him fake reviews online accusing him of being a rapist, and indicted him on four felony counts – which were ultimately dismissed in January 2025.

“If this Commission’s objective is to protect our religious liberty, then we cannot only go on defense. We have to make sure these people are held accountable for what they have done,” he told commissioners. “Because if we don’t, then it will be our children who are on the gallows.”

A licensed Christian counselor in Colorado, Kaley Chiles, also spoke to the commission about her experiences serving clients who struggle with gender dysphoria but seek to align with a biblical understanding of gender. Chiles, who currently has a case pending at the Supreme Court, has said a Colorado law banning conversion therapy has censored her from counseling patients in a way that aligns with her religious beliefs and those of her patients.

A slew of other witnesses across several panels spoke on vaccine mandates, faith-based social services targeted by state officials and physician conscience rights in medical training.

Chairman Dan Patrick said the “heartbreaking testimony” made clear that too many Americans faced threats from the government and were fired from their jobs for exercising their religious rights.

“Unsurprisingly, nearly all of these violations occurred in Democrat states during the Biden Administration,” he said. “Later this year, the Commission will deliver strong recommendations to President Trump to ensure believers never have their religious liberty rights violated again, whether in healthcare or any other facet of American society.”