HHS Office for Civil Rights Opens Formal Probe After Complaint Alleges ADHS Coerced Providers to Abandon Religious Beliefs Under Threat of Losing Licenses
PHOENIX — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights has launched a formal investigation into the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) over allegations that the agency violated the conscience rights and religious freedoms of faith-based behavioral health providers across the state, Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) announced today.
The investigation, announced by HHS on December 9, 2025, examines whether ADHS licensing policies discriminate against faith-based organizations by requiring them to facilitate services that directly conflict with their sincerely held religious beliefs — including practices related to gender identity interventions and abortion referrals — or face denial or termination of their professional licenses.
The targeted organizations had operated for years under ADHS patient-centric standards established in 2013, serving children, families, and trauma survivors of all backgrounds with compassion and excellence. According to the complaint, those longstanding relationships began to unravel in 2023 after Gov. Katie Hobbs issued executive orders that imposed ideological mandates on state agencies. Since then, ADHS agents have refused to offer religious accommodations to qualified, licensed providers — telling them, in effect, to set aside their beliefs or surrender their licenses.
The faith-based organizations at the center of the complaint have requested anonymity due to a legitimate, well-founded fear of retaliation by ADHS. Despite being targeted for their beliefs, the providers desire only to continue serving Arizona’s most vulnerable populations without being forced to violate their consciences.
Jeff Schwartz, who has been working directly with the affected faith-based organizations, said the case is deeply personal.
“This is not a political issue for me. It is personal,” Schwartz said. “My grandfather, David Raznick, was a young Jewish man who fled Poland in 1929 because of escalating religious persecution. He left with almost nothing — just the suit on his back, one small suitcase, and his prayer book. That prayer book is what sustained him, what gave him hope, and what quite literally kept him alive. I hold that prayer book today as a reminder that in America, faith should never be punished, regulated out of existence, or treated as an inconvenience.”
“These nonprofit organizations serve everyone — children, families, trafficking survivors — with compassion and excellence,” Schwartz continued. “They shouldn’t have to stand alone against a state agency that is picking and choosing how it applies the Constitution based on a political agenda. If you are afraid of retaliation, know this: we’ve got your back. If you cannot tell your story publicly, we will tell it for you.”
Peter Gentala, president of Center for Arizona Policy, which filed the federal complaint alongside Schwartz, framed the investigation as a critical turning point for religious liberty in Arizona.
“Arizona’s faith-based providers answer a sacred calling to serve everyone faithfully — children in crisis, families in need, survivors of trafficking,” Gentala said. “No state agency should force them to choose between their license and their deeply held beliefs. That’s not regulation. That’s coercion. And coercion of conscience has no place in American democracy.”
“At a time when Arizona already faces a severe shortage of behavioral health professionals, we should be working to expand access to care — not driving out some of the most effective, compassionate and community embedded organizations in the state because the current administration disfavors their beliefs,” Gentala added. “The federal government recognized credible evidence that Arizona is violating the constitutional rights of people of faith. This investigation restores hope by upholding their freedom to serve.”
According to documents filed with the federal government, the pattern of coercion extended across multiple scenarios. In one documented exchange, ADHS informed a faith-based provider that declining to facilitate a minor’s request for gender identity interventions — a service outside the organization’s expertise and contrary to its beliefs — would constitute a licensing violation. In another, a provider was told that declining to help a pregnant minor obtain an abortion without parental knowledge could result in license revocation for failing to honor “person-centered care.”
The complaint details a timeline of escalating pressure beginning in late 2023, shortly after Gov. Hobbs’ executive orders took effect. Internal communications show that some faith-based organizations ultimately chose to surrender their license rather than be compelled to surrender their beliefs — shutting down operations and discharging the vulnerable children and families they had served for years. Other faith-based organizations live under the constant fear that if they question the validity of the state’s position, ADHS will retaliate against them.
Arizona is currently experiencing a critical shortage of licensed behavioral health providers. Advocates warn that excluding qualified, faith-based professionals from the provider network based on their religious convictions only deepens the crisis, leaving fewer options for Arizona’s children and families in need of care.
Center for Arizona Policy and Schwartz will hold a press conference at 1:00 p.m. Wednesday, February 11, 2026 at the Arizona State Capitol – Rose Garden 1700 W. Washington St., Phoenix, AZ 85007 to discuss the investigation and its implications for Arizona families and faith-based organizations statewide. Media are invited to attend for on-the-record remarks and one-on-one interview opportunities.