Today, the Department of Health and Human Services also announced two pro-life initiatives. The HHS Office for Civil Rights issued a 216-page release (full text) proposing revisions in in order to expand enforcement authority as to rules that protect conscience objections in delivery of health care services. Second, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a Letter to State Medicaid Directors (full text) rescinding SMD #16-005, a 2016 letter to Medicaid. That letter which today's action rescinded provided in part:
... [S]tates may not deny qualification to family planning providers, or take other action against qualified family planning providers, that affects beneficiary access to those providers—whether individual providers, physician groups, outpatient clinics or hospitals—solely because they separately provide family planning services or the full range of legally permissible gynecological and obstetric care, including abortion services (not funded by federal Medicaid dollars, consistent with the federal prohibition), as part of their scope of practice.
