A coalition of states, Congress members, medical organizations and public policy groups have submitted amicus briefs supporting Oklahoma’s fight to restore federal family planning money.
In October, Attorney General Gentner Drummond asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a federal appeals court decision from July that said Oklahoma isn’t entitled to federal family planning money it lost last year. That same decision brought Oklahoma’s case to the Supreme Court in August, where the state's emergency application asking for the release of its Title X funding was later denied.
The coalition filed four briefs, fighting against one of the grant’s requirements to provide counseling to pregnant people on all options, including abortion.
Drummond first challenged the state’s loss of $4.5 million in Title X funding last year with a lawsuit and later, a motion for an injunction against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The goal was to recoup the lost money and prevent further loss in future grant cycles.
Clinics participating in Title X programs offer confidential and low-cost family planning resources for all ages, including contraceptives, counseling and pregnancy testing. The Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) had received Title X funding since 1971.
Oklahoma has currently lost nearly $10 million in Title X funding as legal proceedings continue.
Arguments bolstered through the coalition’s amicus briefs include that the appeals court ruling conflicts with other circuits and The Weldon Amendment was violated. The amendment prevents HHS funds from going to government agencies that discriminate against health care entities that refuse to provide abortion referrals.
Drummond has argued it was violated when Oklahoma was required to provide the call-in number to a hotline that provides information about family planning, including abortion. He said OSDH is a health care entity and the hotline constitutes a referral, meaning it was being subject to discrimination for declining to make referrals.
The lower court has rejected that requiring Oklahoma to share a hotline providing information about family planning, including abortion, constitutes a referral.
A brief from 21 states argues that they have “special solicitude” to challenge unlawful federal executive branch actions to guard the public’s interest in protecting the separation of powers.
“HHS threatens to impede the function of, if not entirely override, many of these laws and state policies (prohibiting abortion) by claiming it has the power to revoke a State’s Title X funding if a State will not refer patients for abortions,” the brief reads.
Nineteen members of Congress — including Oklahoma's entire congressional delegation — said the Weldon Amendment defends the conscience rights of health care institutions, which includes objections to abortion referrals.
“Here, OSDH has a sincerely-held objection to providing the telephone number, which it views as an abortion referral,” the brief reads. “Caselaw dictates that courts cannot ‘say that the line (the objector) drew was an unreasonable one.'”
Five medical organizations and a group of coalitions and organizations also submitted individual briefs. Drummond said in a press release the briefs are a “strong show of support.”
“Federal law is clear that Title X funds cannot be used for abortion, and that organizations who decline to refer for abortions are to be protected,” Drummond said. “The Biden Administration, however, is attempting to force states to provide abortion referrals or lose critical healthcare funding for their citizens."
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