Doctors and medical groups are fighting back against a rule Joe Biden put in place that forces anyone receiving certain federal funds to promote abortions.
On Friday, the pro-life legal group Alliance Defending Freedom filed legal papers supporting them. ADF attorneys filed on behalf of several pro-life and religious medical associations Friday in State of Tennessee v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.
The case involves a Biden administration rule that requires recipients of Title X funds to counsel and refer for abortions:
ADF Senior Counsel Chris Schandevel told LifeNews, “The rights of conscience are at the core of our constitutional freedoms, and forcing medical professionals to violate their beliefs and their Hippocratic oath to do no harm violates our most foundational freedoms.”
” The Biden administration’s Title X rule forces doctors to refer for abortions to receive federal funding and ignores the reality that referring for an abortion is antithetical to the healing profession. The rule disregards rights of conscience and forces many healthcare professionals to make an impossible choice between violating their beliefs and forgoing generally available public benefits, potentially removing critical medical care for those in need,” Schandevel explained.
“Indeed, the administration stripped Tennessee of all of its Title X funding because the state decided not to require referrals for abortions that are illegal in Tennessee. We urge the court to require the Biden administration to restore Tennessee’s funding,” he added.
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Biden is playing politics with impoverished women’s lives by denying health care funding to pro-life states because they protect unborn babies from abortion. Biden and Democrats frequently accuse pro-life Republicans of not doing enough to expand health care access. But new reports reveal that the Democrat leader actually is the one cutting off critical medical services to low-income individuals — including birth control and other family planning.
First Texas, then Oklahoma, and now Tennessee all have been denied millions of dollars in federal funding to provide Medicaid or Title X family planning services.
And the only reason appears to be that the states ban elective abortions, which federal tax dollars are not supposed to fund anyway.
As LifeNews reported previously, last year Tennessee received $7.1 million in Title X funding to provide birth control, STI testing and treatment, and other health services to low-income individuals across the state. However, the Biden administration decided to cut off the funds, denying health care to thousands of individuals because Tennessee will not refer patients for elective abortions.
Oklahoma is in the same situation. The Federalist reported how the Biden administration rescinded a $4.5 million Title X grant to Oklahoma because it protects unborn babies’ lives.
Both states protect unborn babies by banning elective abortions and taxpayer funding for abortions. But to receive Title X money, the Biden administration recently began requiring states to promote abortions.
Title X funds are not supposed to be used for abortions. The program provides family planning services to low-income individuals, and federal law states that grants may not be used “where abortion is a method of family planning.”
In 2021, however, the Biden administration implemented a new rule that contradicts the law and requires Title X recipients to refer for abortions. A dozen states sued to challenge the pro-abortion rule, but the courts have not ruled yet.
In 2022, the Biden administration denied a bipartisan request from the Texas Legislature to expand Medicaid for mothers of newborns. Texas had hoped to expand the program as part of its effort to reduce maternal mortality and save mothers’ lives, but Biden said no.
Texas was the first state to protect unborn babies by banning most abortions in 2021. Now, the state bans all elective abortions, and pro-life advocates and lawmakers are working to expand support services for families in need.
Essential health care should be an issue that Republicans and Democrats, pro-life and pro-abortion activists can work together on. But the Biden administration is playing politics with people’s lives instead.
