Biden admin's proposed health care mandate harms children, parental rights
The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Julie Marie Blake regarding the formal comment ADF attorneys submitted Monday urging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to withdraw its proposed rule that redefines “sex” in federal health law to add abortion, gender identity, and sexual orientation:
“The Biden administration’s proposed health care mandate would impair some of our most fundamental human rights: the right to life, freedom of speech, religious exercise, parental rights, and freedom of conscience. Specifically, the proposed rule disregards the sanctity of human life. It prohibits discrimination on the basis of ‘termination of pregnancy’—an action that could force physicians to perform abortions and employers to cover abortions in their health insurance plans—in direct violation of Title IX, which explicitly says it cannot be used to require people to provide or pay for any service related to abortions. President Biden’s proposal would also harm families and children and threatens to force doctors to act against their medical judgment, religious beliefs, and conscience. This vast overreach of executive authority is unlawful and harmful to American families and children, and we urge the administration to swiftly withdraw its proposed rule.”
ADF’s formal comment explains how since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, “the federal government now has an important opportunity to protect women and children. It thus should promote life-affirming laws and build a culture that recognizes that life is a human right and that women and their unborn children must be supported across the country. Instead, the proposed rule threatens to impose abortion mandates across healthcare.”
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 Julie Marie Blake
Julie Marie Blake serves as senior counsel for regulatory litigation at Alliance Defending Freedom. Over the last decade, she has been on the front lines of high-profile, precedent-setting cases challenging federal overreach in courts across the country. Blake served as deputy solicitor general for the state of Missouri from 2017 to 2020 and as assistant solicitor general for the state of West Virginia from 2013 to 2017. In these roles, she argued 26 federal and state appeals, including before the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. Before entering government service in 2013, Blake was a litigation associate at Baker Botts L.L.P., where she served as volunteer amicus counsel in several ADF cases, including Town of Greece v. Galloway. Following law school, she served as a law clerk for Judge Paul J. Kelly, Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. She received her J.D. magna cum laude from Notre Dame Law School in 2009. She received her B.A. in Politics and Theology & Religious Studies phi beta kappa from the Catholic University of America in 2006. She is a 2007 Blackstone Fellow. Blake is admitted to practice in multiple states, the Supreme Court, and in many federal district and appellate courts.