The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it is investigating thirteen states for “allegedly coercing health care entities to provide coverage of, or pay for, abortion contrary to conscience.”
The HHS Office for Civil Rights argues such state requirements violate the Weldon Amendment, a 2004 law that protects the religious and conscience rights of physicians and health care professionals, hospitals, health insurance plans, and other health care organizations that do not support abortion.
The amendment prohibits federal funds from going to programs or state or local governments that discriminate against these individuals and groups.
Director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights Paula Stannard explained: “OCR launches these investigations to address certain states’ alleged disregard of, or confusion about, compliance with the Weldon Amendment. Under the Weldon Amendment, health care entities, such as health insurance issuers and health plans, are protected from state discrimination for not paying for, or providing coverage of, abortion contrary to conscience. Period.”
HHS is putting these states on notice for violating religious freedom with their abortion coverage mandates: California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington.
Many of them have already faced lawsuits from Christian organizations fighting their unconstitutional abortion mandates, including:
• In 2017, New York created a statewide abortion mandate requiring employers to cover abortifacients and even surgical abortions in their health plans. Becket, a religious freedom legal firm, fought on behalf of ministries’ religious freedom, as the state attempted to force nuns and other religious organizations to cover the cost of abortions, before the state finally backed down.
• A Washington state law, SB 6219, the “Reproductive Parity Act,” forces churches to cover elective abortions in health insurance plans. Alliance Defending Freedom filed suit on behalf of Cedar Park Assembly of God of Kirkland and has been battling for the church’s conscience protections for six years now.
• Thomas More Society filed a lawsuit challenging an Illinois law “requiring all health insurance policies sold in the state to provide coverage for chemical and surgical abortions, with no exemptions, even for churches.”
Scripture is clear that God created humans in His image: “Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness… So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them…” (Genesis 1:26-28)
Every individual ever conceived bears that image. From its very beginning, the church condemned abortion as murder. The government should not attempt to force Christians to participate in grievous sin, and it shouldn’t take Christian groups thousands of dollars, countless hours, and great effort to fight infringements of our First Amendment right to religious freedom.
We’re grateful that the Department of Health and Human Services is pushing back against states that advocate the destruction of human life and trample on religious freedom.
Daily Citizen is a news division of Focus on the Family that provides a faith-based perspective to counter the mainstream media’s anti-Christian bias.
