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HHS Reinterprets Law to Allow California Abortion Mandate
Townhall.com ^ | June 25, 2016 | Congressman Joe Pitts

Posted on 06/25/2016 3:59:50 AM PDT by Kaslin

In 2004 Congress passed the Weldon amendment, which said that no state can discriminate against a healthcare entity because it refuses to participate in abortions. The language includes states discriminating against a health plan that decides not to cover abortion. If the state does, according to the amendment, it will lose its federal funding.

In August 2014, California informed its health insurers that they would no longer be allowed to offer health plans that exclude elective abortions. Insurers complied, as one might expect, and suddenly, no one in California could purchase health insurance that didn't pay for the death of an unborn child.

As a result, churches and schools filed complaints to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR). As California’s action was a clear cut violation of the Weldon Amendment, one would assume that it lost its federal funding. But that's not what happened.

HHS proceeded to open an “investigation” into California’s requirement on health insurers, to determine if discrimination had occurred. Remember: the Weldon amendment says that a state cannot discriminate against a healthcare entity, including a health insurance plan, on the basis that it declines to participate in abortions, or the state will lose its federal funding.

In November 2014, I asked HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell about the investigation into California’s clear violation. Secretary Burwell said “we take this seriously and are trying to move through that investigation as expeditiously as possible… I have asked for due speed.”

After we waited for eighteen months, HHS came back with its verdict: California may have essentially banned all health insurance plans that exclude abortion, but this doesn't qualify as discrimination because none of the health insurers had a moral or religious objection to the mandate.

The Weldon amendment has nothing to do with religiously objecting to abortion; it merely says that states cannot play favorites with plans that provide abortion over those that do not. It doesn't matter why potential discrimination victims choose or don't choose to cover abortions, it simply protects those who decide to do the latter.

HHS searched for a loophole in the Weldon amendment, so that it could allow California to continue with its pro-abortion agenda, and when it came up short, it assigned a new meaning to the law. HHS took the liberty of explaining what Congressman Weldon, the amendment’s author, really meant when he wrote the amendment. They said in their findings that he meant it to protect health insurers with a religious or moral reason to abstain from involvement in abortions. This statement is a complete inference on the part of HHS that goes well beyond the scope of any bureaucratic agency, and it is essentially an attempt to rewrite law.

Perhaps now we should look at HHS’s ruling and apply a similar inference method: what HHS said, in its ruling, is that discrimination did not occur. What HHS meant is that it agrees with California’s aggressive pro-abortion agenda, so they found a way for the state to opt out of following the law.

HHS’s finding of no discrimination is outlandish, at best. California demanded health insurers to drop plans that exclude abortions; it was clearly discriminating against abortion-free health plans. It doesn't matter what the religious beliefs were of the health insurers offering the plans-- the Weldon amendment has nothing to do with religion. In fact, the word religion never even appears in the amendment. It simply outlines that states cannot discriminate against health care entities or plans that refuse to participate in the provision of abortions, period. There is no greater discrimination than eliminating these abortion-free plans.

California indisputably violated the Weldon amendment, and HHS's Office for Civil Rights should act swiftly to label its actions as discriminatory and correct this glaring wrong.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; US: California
KEYWORDS: abortion; california; deathpanels; hhs; insurancecompanies; obamacare; plannedparenthood; stemexpress; zerocare

1 posted on 06/25/2016 3:59:50 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Rule of law, what is that?


2 posted on 06/25/2016 4:12:35 AM PDT by Petrosius
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To: Petrosius

the law is anything you can make a judge believe

if there is no law, there is no law

these folks should be fearing for their lives


3 posted on 06/25/2016 4:16:55 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;+12, 73, ....Opabinia can teach us a lot)
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To: Kaslin

The nation that has killed 60 million babies is under judgement from YHWH. He is done with the United States of America.

We have been under judgement ever since the 1962 School Prayer ruling. The first official Muslim Brotherhood front organization founded in the U.S. was the Muslim Students Association (MSA), established on the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of Illinois in 1964. The Muslim Brotherhood is a type of the Assyrian that YHWH used to bring judgement on the 10 tribes that made up Israel. Al Qaeda is an off-shoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. Their 9/11 attack was a perfect fulfillment of Isaiah 9:8-13.

Since the 1973 Roe v. Wade things have really gotten worse. Since then we have never won a war, before then we never lost one. With Obama we finally got Isaiah 3:4-5 “I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. The people will be oppressed, everyone by another and every one by his neighbor; The child will be insolent toward the elder and the base to the honorable.”

All this moral decay was codified by Judges, just as the moral decay in Sodom and Gomorrah was, according to the Jewish sages, was codified by Judges. That puts us as “in the days of Lot” (Luke 17:28-37). The “great sign in the heavens” from Revelation 12:1-2 actually occurs on September 23-24, 2017. See the image at: http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_1y_hLqVXf4/maxresdefault.jpg

As for Donald Trump, I view him as a type of Samson, whom YHWH raised up to bring down the Temple of Dagon on the Philistines. Read Judges 13-16 and then look at the characteristics Donald Trump shares with Samson: Doesn’t drink, ever; has really wild hair; is really harsh if you treat him badly or unfairly; ran around with a lot of foreign women.

Now look at Donald Trump’s slogan: “Make America Great Again”. Alexis de Tocqueville said: “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” Donald Trump knows that in a country overrun with Philistines one can not campaign on “Make America Good Again”. However, if you look at what he says he will do, how offended he is by people lying about him, how offended he is with dirty tricks, how he hates the corruption in American government, etc. you know that he is trying to do is make America good again. So Donald Trump is bringing people out of the shadows, so to speak, and giving them hope that things can be better. This puts them out in the world where the Holy Spirit can bring believers into contact with those who are to be saved. So that is the spiritual aspect of the Trump campaign.

On the Bible Prophecy side, how is YHWH going to convince the Iranians that 2017 would be about the last time they, with their allies, can wipe out the United States and attack Israel to wipe it off the map?

How about we elect Donald Trump and he starts to make the American Military so strong that no one will want to mess with us? How about if he starts to root out the Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the Government? In fact, the threat of having Donald Trump in the Whitehouse may well trigger the attack that is described in Ezekiel 38:10-13, which YHWH does not stop, so that the attack in Ezekiel 38:14-23, which YHWH will stop can take place. Then the End will come.

When the world gets to these critical points, there isn’t anything one can do to change the course set by YHWH for the world. It is much easier if you focus on that narrow way YHWH has for you to do as your part in His magnificent Word.


4 posted on 06/25/2016 4:18:39 AM PDT by SubMareener (Save us from Quarterly Freepathons! Become a MONTHLY DONOR!e)
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To: SubMareener

Something to consider. The global elite already think the Earth is overpopulated. This follows realizing they may well believe global thermonuclear warfare would be a GOOD thing.


5 posted on 06/25/2016 4:46:26 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: Kaslin

Liberals are liars and they start by entertaining the spiritually suicidal notion that they can lie to themselves. The are, just as Jesus said, children of their father, the author of lies and the first murderer.

In this sad story, we could not find a better example: institutionalized lies to justify institutionally protected murder.


6 posted on 06/25/2016 4:50:08 AM PDT by theBuckwheat
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To: Petrosius

I am a single male, 63 years old. I need abortion coverage in my insurance plan because?


7 posted on 06/25/2016 5:33:24 AM PDT by Barkeep99
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To: Petrosius

Judicious vigilantism needs to be on the table.


8 posted on 06/25/2016 7:10:53 AM PDT by Mmmike
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