The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it will withhold at least $200 million in federal Medicaid funds from California in the first quarter of 2021 because the state is illegally forcing insurance companies and employers, including a Roman Catholic order of religious sisters, to cover abortion “without exclusion or limitation.”
The move comes as the HHS Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced on Dec. 16 a series of enforcement actions aimed at organizations it says are violating conscience-protection laws related to abortion. OCR, through its Conscience and Religious Freedom Division, is responsible for enforcing federal conscience statutes.
