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CMS should create pathways for granting non-clinical laboratories and their testing personnel CLIA certification equivalency. Non-clinical researchers already demonstrate their technical expertise through online training and certification programs. CMS should build on that existing framework so that those laboratories and personnel can similarly demonstrate their clinical testing capabilities.*

LIFE, CONSCIENCE, AND BODILY INTEGRITY

Prohibit abortion travel funding. Providing funding for abortions increases the number of abortions and violates the conscience and religious freedom rights of Americans who object to subsidizing the taking of life. The Hyde Amendment* has long prohibited the use of HHS funds for elective abortions, but an August 2022 Biden executive order* pressed the HHS Secretary to use his authority under Section 1115 demonstrations to waive certain provisions of the law in order to use taxpayer funds to achieve the Administration’s goal of helping women to travel out of state to obtain abortions. Moreover, the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (DOJ OLC) issued a politicized legal opinion declaring, for the first time in the history of Hyde, that this action did not violate the Hyde Amendment and that Hyde applies only to the performance of the abortion itself in violation of the plainly broad language that Congress used.

Two of the first actions of a pro-life Administration should be for HHS

to withdraw the Medicaid guidance (and any Section 1115 waivers issued thereunder) and for DOJ OLC to withdraw and disavow its interpretation of the Hyde Amendment.

Prohibit Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funds. During the 2020-2021 reporting period, Planned Parenthood performed more than 383,000 abortions.*° The national organization reported more than $133 million in excess revenue” and more than $2.1 billion in net assets.** During this same year, Planned Parenthood reports that its affiliates received more than $633 million in government funding and more than $579 million in private contributions.*? Planned Parenthood affiliates face accusations of waste, abuse and potential fraud with taxpayer dollars, failure to report

the sexual abuse of minor girls, and allegations of profiting from the sale of organs from aborted babies.

Policymakers should end taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood and

all other abortion providers and redirect funding to health centers that provide real health care for women. The bulk of federal funding for Planned

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Parenthood comes through the Medicaid program. HHS should take two actions to limit this funding:

1. Issue guidance reemphasizing that states are free to defund Planned Parenthood in their state Medicaid plans.

2. Propose rulemaking to interpret the Medicaid statute to disqualify providers of elective abortion from the Medicaid program.

Congress should pass the Protecting Life and Taxpayers Act,°° which would accomplish the goal of defunding abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood.

CMS should resolve pending Section 1115 waivers from Idaho, South Carolina, and Tennessee, which, like Texas in January 2022, are seeking both to prohibit abortion providers from participating in state-run Medicaid programs and to work with other states to do the same. Abortion is not health care, and states should be free to devise and implement programs that prioritize qualified providers that are not entangled with the abortion industry.

Withdraw Medicaid funds for states that require abortion insurance or that discriminate in violation of the Weldon Amendment. The Weldon Amendment” declares that no HHS funding may go to a state

or local government that discriminates against pro-life health entities

or insurers. In blatant violation of this law, seven states require abortion coverage in private health insurance plans, and HHS continues to fund those states. HHS under President Trump disallowed $200 million in Medicaid funding from California because of the state’s flouting of the law, but the Biden Administration restored it.

HHS/CMS should withdraw appropriated funding, up to and including 10 percent of Medicaid funds, from states that require abortion insurance coverage. DOJ should commit to litigating the defense of those funding decisions promptly to the Supreme Court in order to maximize HHS’s ability to withdraw funds from entities that violate the Weldon Amendment.

Additionally, California has announced that it will discriminate against pharmacies that do not carry chemical abortion drugs outside of California. California’s discrimination takes the form of cutting state contracts with such pharmacies and clearly violates the Weldon Amendment. The violation should likewise face the penalties discussed above.