President Obama Refuses to Protect Californians’ Religious Freedom

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), co-chair of the Bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, reacted sternly Tuesday evening to news the Obama administration is now “reinterpreting” the Weldon Amendment to allow California’s mandate that all insurance companies pay for abortion and abortion-inducing drugs to continue.

Smith said the move was a “new low” for the administration.

“This means that Californians, including churches, will continue to be forced to pay for elective abortions in their insurance plans,” he said. “The Weldon amendment—named for the Florida Congressman Dave Weldon who authored it—has been renewed and signed into law annually, including by President Obama. “The Weldon Amendment protects against state-imposed abortion mandates, but Obama’s administration has again shown blatant disregard for the rule of law.”

The Weldon Amendment is an annual appropriations rider, signed into law consistently since 2004, which protects against state-imposed discrimination on the basis of declining to pay for or participate in abortion.

Since August of 2014, California has mandated that all churches in the state must cover all abortions in their insurance plans—even in plans where abortion had previously been excluded. Numerous churches filed complaints with the HHS Office of Civil Rights seeking enforcement of the Weldon Amendment.

Tuesday, the HHS Office of Civil Rights released the results of its investigation into the California mandate, stating it “found no violation of the Weldon Amendment and is closing this matter without further action.” Smith said the decision illustrates “the far reaches of Obama’s radical pro-abortion ideology” by forcing churches and communities of faith that have pro-life convictions to “participate in and pay for a practice that dismembers and chemically poisons unborn children.”

“Congress must not let this discrimination stand,” he said. “We must take this issue out of the hands of the Obama administration by moving enforcement of current conscience protections to the courts. Congress needs to enact legislation so churches and other victims have a ‘private right of action’ so they can have their day in court.”