State of Oklahoma v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Description: In 2021, the Biden administration created a rule that strips Title X funding from recipients who do not counsel and refer women for abortions. Oklahoma does not require referrals for abortions that are illegal in the state and is challenging the Biden administration to restore funding.
ADF to Supreme Court: Biden-Harris Title X rule change violates federal conscience protections
The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel and Vice President of Appellate Advocacy John Bursch regarding a friend-of-the-court brief ADF filed Monday with the U.S. Supreme Court in State of Oklahoma v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of five medical associations and pro-life groups. The case involves a Biden-Harris administration rule change that requires recipients of federal Title X family-planning funds to counsel and refer women for abortions, even though multiple federal laws protect health care providers from being forced to participate in abortion if it violates their conscience and religious beliefs:
“Doctors and nurses shouldn’t be forced to violate their consciences and their religious beliefs as the price of practicing medicine—especially when those are the very beliefs that lead so many people to enter the healing profession. Health care professionals’ oath to ‘do no harm’ directly conflicts with abortion, which ends the life of the unborn child and harms the child’s mother. The Biden-Harris administration’s Title X rule punishes pro-life states like Oklahoma that have laws in place that protect the life of the mother and child and refuse to force medical professionals who object to facilitating abortion. We are urging the Supreme Court to take this case and require the federal government to restore Oklahoma’s critical Title X funding without unlawfully mandating that health care professionals violate their life-affirming beliefs.”
ADF attorneys filed the brief on behalf of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, the Catholic Medical Association, the National Association of Catholic Nurses, and the Human Coalition.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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ABOUT John Bursch
John Bursch is senior counsel and vice president of appellate advocacy with Alliance Defending Freedom. Bursch has argued 12 U.S. Supreme Court cases and more than 30 state supreme court cases since 2011, and a recent study concluded that among all frequent Supreme Court advocates who did not work for the federal government, he had the 3rd highest success rate for persuading justices to adopt his legal position. Bursch served as solicitor general for the state of Michigan from 2011-2013. He has argued multiple Michigan Supreme Court cases in eight of the last ten terms and has successfully litigated hundreds of matters nationwide, including six with at least $1 billion at stake. As part of his private firm, Bursch Law PLLC, he has represented Fortune 500 companies, foreign and domestic governments, top public officials, and industry associations in high-profile cases, primarily on appeal. He received his J.D. magna cum laude in 1997 from the University of Minnesota Law School and is admitted to practice in numerous federal district and appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
