In 2022, post-Roe v. Wade being overturned, the Biden Administration signed an executive order to allow Medicaid to help women seeking abortions in states where it is banned, to travel to states where they can receive medical care. The Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel issued a legal opinion that the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits using federal funds to pay for an abortion, only applies to the abortion itself, not to travel.

This is to say nothing of the fact that we are supposed to have separation of church and state in this country, and women need not concern themselves with whether or not their health care decisions “violate” someone else’s conscience. It CERTAINLY doesn’t violate someone else’s “religious freedom rights” to make health care choices for oneself. It violates someone’s freedom to dictate what their choices are. Religous concerns shouldn’t enter into the kinds of health care services we offer as a country. Your religion dictates what YOU should do, not what everyone else should do.

Full contextual analysis of Section 3.5: Department of Health and Human Services here.