Contact: Jeff Sagnip, 202-225-3765; chrissmith.house.gov

WASHINGTON, June 23, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- "Yesterday in a meeting with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell and Director of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) Joceyln Samuels, I and my pro-life colleagues expressed our strong disagreement with the Administration's outrageous misinterpretation of the Weldon Amendment," said Rep. Chris Smith, Co-Chair of the Bipartisan Pro-Life Caucus.

"In a more than hour long discussion, HHS doubled down on its decision to unilaterally rewrite the law – the Weldon Amendment – to allow California to continue to discriminate against pro-life plans. California has been violating the Weldon Amendment for nearly two years with impunity – forcing churches that purchase health plans to cover abortion. It is outright discrimination to force a health plan to cease to exist because it doesn't include abortion."

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