AI-generated summary, not yet reviewed by Better Utah staff. Please consult the bill text.

Health care providers in Utah — including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, physical therapists, and dozens of other licensed professionals — would gain a formal legal right to refuse to provide or take part in any health care service that conflicts with their religious beliefs or conscience, including abortion, contraception, gender-transition care, artificial insemination, or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, and would be shielded from civil, criminal, or professional discipline for that refusal. Providers exercising this right would have to give advance notice to their employer or the facility involved, and would be required to post a notice — both in their office and online — listing the services they decline to provide, along with a referral to a state-run directory and hotline for finding providers who do offer those services. Employers and health care institutions would be barred from firing, demoting, or otherwise penalizing a provider for these refusals, though an employer could still act if the refusals create an undue hardship or involve the core duties the provider was hired for, and hospitals would still have to provide emergency screening and stabilizing treatment regardless of a provider's objections. The bill also creates a complaint and enforcement process through the Division of Professional Licensing and the Department of Health and Human Services, allowing lawsuits, damages, and attorney fees for violations, and separately expands existing abortion-related conscience protections to let a provider refuse, on religious or conscience grounds, to handle the disposal of remains from an abortion or related procedure.