The Trump administration on Friday gave California a "notice of violation," threatening to cut federal healthcare funding for the state if it continues to insist that insurance plans cover abortions.
According to Axios, the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said the requirement is illegal, violating a law that prohibits the U.S. from giving funding to states or other entities that discriminate against health providers that don't want to provide abortion services.
The announcement came as President Donald Trump spoke before pro-life activists at the annual March for Life rally, and as his 2020 presidential reelection campaign is forming a pro-life coalition. Trump, who is positioning himself as a champion of the right to life, is the first sitting president to speak at the march. And he is courting religious conservatives who make up a considerable component of his political base.
“Once again, President Trump’s administration is delivering on his promise to protect human life and all Americans’ freedom of conscience,” said HHS Secretary Alex Azar, according to a news release. “Under President Trump, HHS has been vigorously enforcing the statutes Congress passed to protect Americans’ consciences and institutionalizing these protections within the department’s civil rights work.”
“No one in America should be forced to pay for or cover other people’s abortions,” said Roger Severino, director of HHS' Office for Civil Rights. “We are putting California on notice that it must stop forcing people of good will to subsidize the taking of human life, not only because it’s the moral thing to do, but because it’s the law.”
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra issued a a sharp response response on Friday.
“Women’s health should never be dangled as bait for the sake of political grandstanding," he said in a news release of his own. Today, Donald Trump is using the official levers of government to advance his political agenda. Sound familiar? In California, we will continue to protect our families’ access to healthcare, including women’s constitutional right to abortion. Nothing changes.”
Becerra has been emphatic that California will defend women’s constitutional rights to control their own body and healthcare, the release stated.
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