President Joe Biden’s administration is punishing Oklahoma for refusing to promote abortion, Oklahoma Senator James Lankford argued in an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court first obtained by The Daily Wire.
The statement of interest, which is signed by 19 members of Congress — including Senators Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Steve Daines of Montana, and Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi — argues that the Biden administration suspended the $4.5 million Title X Family Planning grant formerly awarded to Oklahoma’s Department of Health as a way to punish the state for refusing to promote abortion.
In Oklahoma, abortions of unborn babies are only allowed if the health of the mother is in danger.
The Department of Health and Human Services had awarded the $4.5 million to the Oklahoma State Department of Health to spend on “family planning services” — then rescinded the sum effective May 24, 2023, after finding that Oklahoma would not spend the money on abortion. In September, the Supreme Court rejected Oklahoma’s request that the High Court restore the federal family planning grant that the Biden administration had removed.
Lankford filed the brief on Monday, in reference to Oklahoma v. Department of Health and Human Services. It argues that “the right of conscience is fundamental to our American freedoms” and that this freedom should be guaranteed by “protecting all health care providers from being forced to perform, refer, or pay for elective abortions.”
“President Biden is obsessed with elective abortion on demand,” Lankford told The Daily Wire. “Oklahomans should not have to miss out on funding for critical health services for women, AIDS testing, and cancer screenings because of the Administration’s extreme abortion agenda. I am proud to lead my colleagues on this brief that puts actual health care ahead of politics.”
The lawmakers describe themselves, in the statement of interest, as “pro-life elected representatives” who are committed to “protecting mothers, unborn children, and families from the harms of the abortion industry.”
These lawmakers have voted annually to adopt the Weldon Amendment, they wrote, which protects health care institutions from discrimination against those institutions’ right to “conscientiously object against ending unborn human life.”
Lankford has pushed back against the removal of the millions of dollars stripped from Oklahoma. He introduced a bill in July 2023 that would have clarified that the Department of Health and Human Services can’t discriminate against Title X grantees for their pro-life stances. The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
And in June 2023, Lankford led Oklahoma congressional delegation in sending a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, an outspoken pro-abortion Biden administration official. The letter argued that “HHS has chosen to prioritize abortion instead of prioritizing actual health care, by suspending Title X funding awarded to OSDH because of its obligation to abide by federal law and the state laws of Oklahoma.”
“It is absurd that HHS is suspending funds previously granted to OSDH for its refusal to refer for a procedure that the underlying federal statute explicitly forbids,” Lankford, and a number of his colleagues, wrote in the letter at the time.