The Obama administration says it’s still looking into whether California’s new abortion coverage mandate violates federal law, amid complaints the investigation is moving too slowly.
This week Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell told two congressional panels she has asked investigators to act with “due speed” as they weigh a complaint filed in October by seven evangelical churches in California.
Last August the state said health insurance plans must start covering abortion but didn’t include religious exemptions for the churches — who are morally opposed to the practice — prompting cries from anti-abortion activists and legal groups that the state is violating federal law.
“It is something we take very seriously,” Burwell told the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday. “We are moving to do that investigation expeditiously.”
Fights over taxpayer funding for abortion typically revolve around the well-known Hyde Amendment, but in this battle a lesser-known law, the Weldon Amendment, is center stage. That amendment, added to every appropriations bill since 2005, allows the federal government to withhold funding from states if they don’t allow religious exemptions for health plans.
Attorneys representing the churches argue it’s up to the federal government to either tell California to give religious organizations a way out or withhold federal funding from the state if it doesn’t comply.
And they say they want an answer faster, as the requirement went into effect almost immediately last summer.
“It’s puzzling it’s taking them six months for them to weigh in at all,” said Casey Mattox, an attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom, one of two groups representing the churches. The other group is the Life Legal Defense Foundation.
Mattox says the churches are considering filing a lawsuit on the matter, depending on how the administration responds. He said he was informed in December that the HHS Office of Civil Rights was investigating, but hasn’t been told when to expect an answer.
Republican lawmakers drilled Burwell on the matter this week. Calling California’s move “clearly illegal,” Rep. Joe Pitts expressed frustration that her agency hasn’t responded yet.
“It’s your job to stop them, and it hasn’t happened,” the Pennsylvania Republican said at a House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee hearing.
California gave health plans 90 days to change the language in their policies to include abortion services, after informing them that the state’s constitution and a 1975 state law prohibits them from selling group plans that exclude it. Churches will also face more decisions as their plans reach their annual renewal date, critics of the policy say.
“Your Office of Civil Rights has failed to take corrective action,” Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said at the appropriations hearing. “Time is of the essence.”
