Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services has opened an investigation into 13 states for “coercing” doctors to perform abortions.
The probe centers on claims that the states violated the Weldon Amendment, the agency’s Office for Civil Rights announced on Thursday. The amendment — a federal “conscience” provision — bars states receiving federal funding from penalizing health care providers that decline to offer, fund or cover abortion services.
“OCR launches these investigations to address certain states’ alleged disregard of, or confusion about, compliance with the Weldon Amendment,” Paula Stannard, the OCR director, said in a news release.
“Under the Weldon Amendment,” Stannard said, “health care entities, such as health insurance issuers and health plans, are protected from state discrimination for not paying for, or providing coverage of, abortion contrary to conscience. Period.”
The states under investigation all voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024. They are: California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington, according to The Hill.
An HHS official told the outlet that the probes were not initiated by reports from the states, but they said it was “largely, I think, because the prior administration closed complaints.”
In 2021, former President Joe Biden’s HHS withdrew a notice of violation delivered to California during President Donald Trump’s first term and closed the complaint which prompted the notice. HHS, at the time, stated that multiple of the organizations in question, including a church and missionary group, could not be defined as a “health care entity.”
An HHS official told The Hill that this decision “reflected an unduly narrow reading of the statute.”
The official said the provision is necessary “because of concern over the fact that state and local governments were coercing health care entities … both providers as well as health plans and health insurance companies, into covering or providing abortion, despite religious or conscientious objections to those requirements.”
An agency spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Independent.
The newly announced investigations mark the latest effort by the Trump administration to target abortion service providers, following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order to prohibit taxpayer dollars from being used to promote or fund elective abortions.
In June, the administration revoked a Biden-era federal directive requiring emergency rooms to provide an abortion when necessary to save a patient’s life.
Most Americans support abortions being legalized, with 60 percent saying the procedure should be permitted in all or most cases, while 38 percent believe it should be illegal in all or most instances, according to a March survey from the Pew Research Center.
