The federal government is launching an investigation into reported violations of abortion-related conscience protections by more than a dozen states. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Thursday that its Office of Civil Rights (OCR) will probe 13 states — California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington — over alleged violations of the Weldon Amendment, a federal provision which bars state governments from withholding public health care funds from health care providers who refuse to carry out or refer patients for abortions.
In 2021, under then-President Joe Biden, the HHS OCR revised its legal guidance on the Weldon Amendment to exclude employers and health care plan sponsors from the scope of the Weldon Amendment’s protections. President Donald Trump’s administration had previously warned California’s state government in 2020 that it could not mandate abortion coverage in health care plans. The Biden administration promptly rescinded the Trump administration’s order, arguing that “health plan sponsors or employers, including the complainants, do not meet the definition of ‘health care entity’ under the Weldon Amendment…” The HHS OCR rejected that interpretation earlier this year.
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