HHS officials said the department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will launch investigations into 13 states for allegedly violating the Weldon Amendment, an appropriations provision that states any state or local government that receives federal funds cannot "discriminate" against any health care provider that refuses to cover, pay for, refer or provide an abortion.
The states the HHS will investigate are California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. States will have 20 days to respond to letters sent by the HHS.
"OCR launches these investigations to address certain states' alleged disregard of, or confusion about, compliance with the Weldon Amendment," Paula Stannard, director of the OCR, said in a statement.
"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."
In a press call, an HHS official described the provision, put in place in 2005, as being necessary "because of concern over the fact that state and local governments were coercing health care entities … both providers as well as health plans and health insurance companies, into covering or providing abortion, despite religious or conscientious objections to those requirements."
Officials said these investigations were not prompted by any complaints from these states, though they said this was "largely, I think, because the prior administration closed complaints."
When asked what a policy compliant with the Weldon Amendment would look like, an HHS official said, "I can't speculate, in the absence of concrete examples, with respect to what a compliant policy would look like at this point. The statute is fairly clear and straightforward."
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