Published April 12, 2024
On April 12, 2024, EPPC Fellows Rachel N. Morrison and Eric Kniffin filed an amicus brief in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of Tennessee’s challenge to HHS’s rescission of the state’s Title X funding. Title X is a federal program that provides funding for family planning services. Even though explicitly prohibits Title X funds from being used “in programs where abortion is a method of family planning,” HHS cut off funding because Tennessee won’t counsel and refer for abortions that are illegal under state law.
The brief, filed on behalf of EPPC, argues that HHS’s action is part of the Biden administration’s pattern and practice to promote its abortion-at-all-costs agenda. The brief documents how the Biden administration is using federal agencies like HHS to unilaterally expand abortion access and preempt state abortion laws in violation of federal law and contrary to the Supreme Court’s direction in Dobbs to return the issue of abortion “to the people and their elected representatives.”
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.
