GOP State AG’s threaten legal action over Biden Administration’s expansion of taxpayer-funded abortion
Over 20 Republican state attorneys general across the country sent a letter to President Joe Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra last week threatening legal action if DHHS implements their plan to expand taxpayer funding for abortions.
The letter, authored by Ohio attorney general Dave Yost and signed onto by 20 other state attorney’s general, slams a proposed rule change to the Title X family funding program that would grant abortion providers access to millions of dollars in taxpayer funds.
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“Title X reflects a compromise. It funds services that large numbers of Americans support while withholding that funding from services that large numbers oppose,” the letter says. “The Proposed Rule tramples that compromise, by intertwining family-planning services with the divisive issue of publicly funded abortions.”
The proposed rule change also walks back policies instituted by the Trump administration that required recipients of the program’s funding to separate abortion services and family planning services. “By focusing on advancing equity in the Title X program, we can create opportunities for the improvement of communities that have been historically underserved, which benefits everyone,” the proposal says.
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The letter also calls into question the Biden administration’s use of the term ‘health equity” in the rule change, as it could be used in an unlawful way to encourage discrimination based on race.
“In addition, health programs that receive funding from the Department may not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability. Thus existing law requires nondiscriminatory treatment aimed to those patients most in need. To the extent promoting health equity merely reiterates these requirements, such clarification is useful. To the extent promoting health equity differs, and either requires discrimination on the basis of race or should not be aimed at certain patients, such clarification would be necessary though likely contrary to law,” the letter says.
Becerra received criticism from pro-life groups and GOP members after remarks he made claiming that there is no law banning partial-birth abortion in the United States. “There is no law that deals specifically with the term ‘partial-birth abortion,'” he said on May 17 at a congressional hearing. The statement was deemed false by fact-checkers for ignoring the existence of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, a law Becerra voted against as a member of the House.
“Becerra can hardly plead ignorance on this topic. As a freshman congressman, he voted against the ban. This shameless lie is standard for the most radical pro-abortion administration in history,” said Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser.