U.S. CONGRESSMAN JOHN C. FLEMING, M.D.

Congressman John Fleming, M.D., issued the following statement about a letter he sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell regarding California’s insistence that all insurance plans under the state’s Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) include abortion coverage:
 
“This is a clear violation of federal law and another tragic attack on the First Amendment. California is forcing individuals, churches, religious charities, and other employers to pay for health insurance that covers abortion services, even when such coverage violates their deeply held beliefs. By taking this action, California is forbidding the very existence of health plans that affirm life and that exclude abortion services. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is aware of this violation, and, under federal law, must not make federal dollars available to a state government that discriminates in this way. I’ve been joined by 132 other Members of Congress in writing to the HHS Secretary to seek the department’s action in bringing DMHC into compliance with federal law.”