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The Department of Health and Human Services suspended Title X funding for Oklahomans because they refused to make abortion referrals.

Americans United for Life (AUL) filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court Monday on behalf of 19 members of Congress in support of a Court petition for writ of certiorari. The congressional leads on this brief were Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) and Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK-4). Every member of Oklahoma’s congressional delegation signed on to the brief.

After the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) required Title X fund recipients to require abortion referrals and counseling, HHS then suspended Oklahoma’s $4.5 million Title X award because the state did not comply with this requirement. Oklahoma has a pro-life law that bans these actions. Oklahoma sued. Oklahoma lost in the district court and Tenth Circuit. The Supreme Court then denied the state’s emergency application for relief. 

Oklahoma is now asking the Supreme Court to review the lower courts’ decisions. This case has broad implications for institutional rights of conscience, federalism, and state police powers to protect human life from the harms of abortion.

Steven Aden, chief legal officer & general counsel at AUL, said, “The Supreme Court unanimously held this year that federal conscience laws definitively protect doctors from being forced to participate in abortions in Food & Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. Our review of the caselaw concludes the same protections apply to health care institutions, including Oklahoma’s Department of Health. AUL is privileged to file this brief on behalf of courageous members of Congress.”

Carolyn McDonnell, litigation counsel, said, “Our argument in the brief focuses on the Weldon Amendment, an appropriations rider that Congress has included in every appropriations bill since 2004. The amendment is a robust conscience protection that prohibits funding for a federal agency if that agency subjects any health care institution to discrimination if that institution does not refer for abortions. We hope the Court acknowledges that Oklahoma’s Department of Health qualifies as a health care institution under the Weldon Amendment and reinstates needed Title X funds for the state.”

Read the full brief here.

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