GOP AGs Seek to Stop HHS's Expansion of Abortion Funding

The Biden administration’s expansion of taxpayer-funded abortion will likely face a legal challenge from Republican state attorneys general.

Twenty-one GOP state AGs on Tuesday threatened legal action if the administration moves to enact changes to the Title X family funding program as proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services, reports The Washington Free Beacon.

“In a country of more than 300 million people, no one gets his or her way all the
time,” Ohio Attorney General David Yost wrote in the letter last week to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.

“Everyone has to compromise a bit. 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 proposed rule tramples that compromise, by intertwining family-planning services with the divisive issue of publicly funded abortions. The proposed rule is not based on the public health, but grantee preference to have freer rein of taxpayer dollars.”

The letter also points out the HHS’ “health equity” push might violate anti-discrimination law, because “health programs that receive funding from the department may not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability.”

HHS did not return a request for comment from the Free Beacon.

The moves by President Joe Biden, issued April 15, sought to unwind a Trump administration requirement to separate abortion services from family planning.

“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 read.

Becerra has come under fire from pro-life conservatives after suggesting there is no law against partial-birth abortions.

“There is no law that deals specifically with the term ‘partial birth abortion,'” Becerra told Congress on May 17, ignoring the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, a law Becerra voted against when he was in the House of Representatives.

Noted pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List called out Becerra’s “lie” or “ignorance” on the act.

“Becerra can hardly plead ignorance on this topic,” Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said, according to the Free Beacon.

“As a freshman congressman, he voted against the ban. This shameless lie is standard for the most radical pro-abortion administration in history.”

The Supreme Court announced earlier this month it will hear arguments on a Mississippi state law banning most abortions after 15 weeks.

Pro-life Republicans are hopeful it will help spur Congress to weigh in on when life begins and help bring clarity to the abortion rights versus rights of the unborn that has raged since the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade from the ’70s.