On Thursday, the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights issued its “final conscience rule that protects individuals and health care entities from discrimination on the basis of their exercise of conscience in HHS-funded programs.” The final rule serves as a way to implement and enforce more than two dozen provisions Congress has already passed which protect healthcare providers who function with a religious conscience.

The final rule fulfills President Trump’s promise to protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious liberty, a promise he made nearly two years ago when he signed an executive order protecting religious liberty. Even conservatives wondered if such an executive order would eventually come with some proverbial teeth, as often those rulings from any administration pander to the ideological base of whoever resides in office, but do little long term.