(The Center Square) – University of Michigan Health is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for after an employee claimed her civil rights were violated.
The Office for Civil Rights at HHS announced the investigation last Friday.
“OCR is committed to enforcing federal conscience laws in health care,” said Paula M. Stannard, OCR director. “Health care workers should be able to practice both their professions and their faith.”
The federal inquiry is looking into allegations that a medical professional was terminated for exercising her “federally protected rights of conscience”—specifically, her right to refuse to use patient pronouns that conflicted with their biological sex or to assist in transgender procedures due to her religious beliefs.
Under federal law, employers are required to accommodate health care workers with religious beliefs or moral convictions that are contrary to certain procedures or certain health service programs.
While HHS did not specify what “Midwest health system” was under investigation, a spokesperson confirmed to Michigan Public that the U-M Health system and allegations from its former employee, Valerie Kloosterman, is what is in question.
Kloosterman, a physician’s assistant, sued her former employer for her 2021 termination following her request for religious accommodations to not participate in referring patients for transgender surgeries or using chosen pronouns.
First Liberty, a non-profit public interest law firm focused on religious liberty, took up the case in 2022 filing a lawsuit on Kloosterman’s behalf.
“It is intolerant and unconstitutional for employers to demand that medical professionals like Valerie abandon their religious beliefs in order to remain employed,” said Roger Byron, senior counsel for First Liberty. “The University of Michigan Health-West system is sending a message that religious health care workers are not welcome and need not apply. We hope Michigan Health is held accountable for its discrimination.”
Hearings were held in the case in February 2025 by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. No ruling has yet been made in the court.
This is the third conscience rights investigation launched by HHS during the Trump administration’s second term, following two previous probes earlier this year.
HHS enforces federal protections against discrimination in specific programs funded by federal financial assistance or grant and block grant programs. U-M is a major recipient of federal funding, receiving $1.17 billion in federally-sponsored research expenditures in fiscal year 2024 alone.
HHS said in a statement these investigations are all part of a “larger effort to strengthen enforcement of laws protecting conscience and religious exercise.”
“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the Office for Civil Rights, is tasked with enforcement of many of our nation’s laws that protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious exercise,” said Dr. Dorothy Fink, former acting secretary of HHS, just days after President Donald Trump took office. “It shall be a priority of the department to strengthen enforcement of these laws.”
Elyse Apel is a reporter for The Center Square covering Colorado and Michigan. A graduate of Hillsdale College, Elyse’s writing has been published in a wide variety of national publications from the Washington Examiner to The American Spectator and The Daily Wire.
