Rachel N. Morrison

Fellow

Rachel N. Morrison is a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where she directs EPPC’s HHS Accountability Project. An attorney, her legal and policy work focuses on religious liberty, health care rights of conscience, the right to life, nondiscrimination, and civil rights.

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Rachel N. Morrison is a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where she directs EPPC’s HHS Accountability Project. An attorney, her legal and policy work focuses on religious liberty, health care rights of conscience, the right to life, nondiscrimination, and civil rights.

Before joining EPPC, Ms. Morrison served as an Attorney Advisor and Special Assistant to General Counsel Sharon Fast Gustafson at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), where she focused on religious discrimination issues and was a member of the General Counsel’s Religious Discrimination Work Group. Before that, she served as Litigation Counsel for Americans United for Life and as a Constitutional Law Fellow at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, defending the right to life and religious freedom for all. She also clerked on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

Ms. Morrison’s legal analysis has been published in the Seton Hall Law Review, the Pepperdine Law Review, and the Ave Maria Law Review, as well as various other print media outlets.

Ms. Morrison earned her J.D., magna cum laude, from the Pepperdine University School of Law, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as an editor for the Pepperdine Law Review and the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. She received her B.A. in Mathematics and Speech Communication, summa cum laude, from Whitworth University (Spokane, WA). She is a member of the District of Columbia and the Washington State bars.

Ms. Morrison lives with her husband and daughter in Virginia.

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Should taxpayers pay for abortion travel?

Rachel N. Morrison

The Biden administration has sought new and creative ways to use the federal government to promote, provide and pay for abortion — all on the taxpayer’s dime.

Articles

The Hill / November 29, 2022

EPPC Scholars Submit Comment Supporting Virginia School Policies that Revoke Gender Ideology and Restore Respect…

Rachel N. Morrison

We applaud Virginia’s concrete action to respect parental rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and laws of Virginia and to ensure privacy, dignity, and respect for all students in Virginia schools.

Articles

Public Comment / October 26, 2022

Department of Veterans Affairs Interim Final Rule on Abortion

Rachel N. Morrison

Legal challenges to the IFR are possible, including on the grounds that the IFR exceeds the VA’s statutory authority and there is no “good cause” to issue an IFR and short-circuit the normal rulemaking process.

Articles

The Federalist Society / October 18, 2022

EPPC Scholars Submit Public Comment Opposing Veterans Affairs Rule Requiring Abortion Benefits 

Rachel N. Morrison

The VA’s claim that abortion under the IFR is ‘needed’ and ‘medically necessary and appropriate’ is arbitrary and capricious. Abortion is not healthcare, abortion harms women, and women do not need abortion to succeed.

Articles

Federal Register / October 11, 2022

EPPC Scholars Submit Public Comment Opposing HHS Section 1557 Proposed Transgender Mandate in Healthcare

Rachel N. Morrison

It will be the height of arbitrariness and capriciousness to finalize such a dangerous rule in the face of these and the many other grave harms identified in this comment when they are not only not mandated by Congress, but go against the very statute the Proposed Rule purports to enforce.

Articles

/ October 3, 2022

EPPC Scholar Files Brief Asking Supreme Court to Restore Religious Accommodation Protections for Employees

Rachel N. Morrison

Without intervention by the Court, Hardison will continue to effectively nullify the vital religious protections guaranteed by Title VII.

Articles

/ September 26, 2022

Businesses Should Think Twice About Abortion Benefits

Rachel N. Morrison

Corporations’ abortion travel benefits may constitute pregnancy discrimination and disability discrimination.

Articles

FOX News / September 21, 2022

EPPC Scholars Submit Comment Opposing Proposed Title IX Rule

Rachel N. Morrison

On September 12, EPPC Fellow Rachel N. Morrison and Kate O’Beirne Senior Fellow Mary Rice Hasson submitted a public comment opposing a proposed rule…

PDF / September 13, 2022

HHS Imposes Transgender Mandate in Health Care

Rachel N. Morrison

In accord with the Biden administration’s “health equity” and gender identity policy priorities, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed new nondiscrimination regulations under Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act .

Articles

The Federalist Society / September 8, 2022

The Medical Community Should Care About Biden’s Proposed Title IX Regulations

Rachel N. Morrison

HS is using a nondiscrimination law to push a medical standard of care.

Articles

National Review Online / August 31, 2022

EPPC Scholar Meets with Federal Officials to Oppose a Proposal to Eliminate Protections for Faith-Based…

Rachel N. Morrison

Despite broad protections for faith-based contractors in law, the proposal would limit which contractors can qualify for religious exemption and would prohibit faith-based contractors from making employment decisions based on sincere religious beliefs and tenets.

Articles

 

Biden Education Department’s Fake Punt on Women’s Sports

Rachel N. Morrison

Nowhere do the proposed regulations explicitly state that participation in sex-specific sports must (or may) be based on biological sex

Articles

Newsweek / August 9, 2022