February 25, 2020

CA Attorney General to HHS: “California will take no ‘corrective action.’” CA will Continue to Force Churches to Cover Abortion

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra
Credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra wrote in a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that the State has no plans to stop forcing private employers, including churches and religious organizations, to fund health insurance plans with abortion coverage.

The HHS Department’s Office for Civil Rights issued a Notice of Violation to the state of California in January. The Notice declared that California's law forcing employers to cover abortion was a violation of the Weldon Amendment. The amendment allows the federal government to withhold funding from states which discriminate against “any institutional or individual healthcare entity” because they don't “provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.”

The HHS Office for Civil Rights stated that if California fails to comply with federal law, it may face “limitations on continued receipt of certain HHS funds.”

California will not back down with its violations, however. “California will take no ‘corrective action,’” said Xavier Becerra. He argued that the Obama administration found no problems with the California requirement, which began in 2014.

It could easily be argued that pro-abortion bias may have affected the Obama administration's enforcement of the Weldon Amendment.

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