Posted on 07/20/2015 4:05:11 PM PDT by markomalley
Religious groups that refuse abortion counseling no longer can get grants to help trafficking victims unless they ensure the counseling is provided by a third party, under new guidelines by the Department of Health and Human Services.
In guidance quietly posted online in June, the agency said groups competing for grants must offer "the full range of legally permissible gynecological and obstetric care," which includes abortion counseling and referrals. If groups don't offer the services, they must propose an alternative approach to remain competitive for a grant.
That has at least one anti-abortion advocate contending the new policy may violate the federal Weldon Amendment, a law saying federal money can't be awarded if it's being used to discriminate against healthcare entities that won't provide or refer women for abortions.
Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life, which stages a big anti-abortion march in Washington every January, called the policy change legally questionable.
"We need to ask if this is legal," Mancini said. "I think it is terrible the Obama administration is willing to put abortion policy ahead of good, loving services to these women who have already gone through the mot undignified treatment of people that could happen."
The federal money is provided through the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement to charities that help trafficking victims access healthcare services, get mental health counseling and find employment. It can't be used to fund abortions, under the federal Hyde Amendment.
The policy shift is unlikely to affect any of the three current grant awardees. Those groups, which include Georgia-based Tapestri, Chicago-based Heartland Human Care Services and the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, based in Arlington, Va., don't advertise any particular religious history or views on their websites.
But it would affect any new groups that apply for grants in the fall. And to conservatives, who are still upset with the administration over its requirement for businesses to cover birth control under Obamacare, the policy change could represent a marginalization of those with religious convictions.
Questioned about the policy shift, an HHS representative said the agency is "committed" to making allowances for organizations with religious objections "while ensuring that clients have access to the full range of legally permissible services for which they are eligible."
The new policy represents the second time the agency has tightened the rules on trafficking grants in the last few years. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which opposes contraception and abortion on moral grounds, lost funding in 2011 when the agency started giving preference to groups that offer the "full range of services," including abortion counseling.
The newest guidance, which was posted June 19 and applies to grants being awarded in the fall, further tightens the rules by requiring groups to ensure contraceptives and abortion counseling are made available to trafficked women via a third party.
If HHS approves groups applying for an alternate route, which will be done on a case-by-case basis, the group will then get a "religious accommodation," the guidance says. But it also cautions that even with the accommodation, groups can't discourage women from seeking abortion counseling through the subcontractor.
"The alternative approach must be one that accomplished the goal of ensuring that trafficking victims understand the full range of services available to them, including reproductive health services, and that there is a mechanism by which victims requesting such services can receive appropriate referrals," the guidance says.
Think I'm kidding? According to USA Spending, CRS has received over $210 million in grants since fiscal year 2013. That is ONLY CRS, not all Catholic entities.
So when they send out their next plea for money, you need to do some serious research before lending your support.
Don't know about Protestant groups that get grants from FEDGOV so I won't make a claim about them one way or the other.
If Catholic or other pro-life groups can’t help with human trafficking victims the grant programs should be abolished.
But that would require Republicans with a spine.
I am all for ending the grant programs to dump illegal immigrants and muslim “refugees” on the taxpayers. I read this past week eek that 91.4% of muslim refugees are on food stamps. We’ve got more than enough Americans that could use the money.
Catholic Charities receives $billions of US tax dollars every year. So much is used to dump illegals and muslim refugees on the taxpayers. It is obscene what they’re doing to the USA.
I won’t tie Catholic Charities to the Catholic Church. These people are professional grant writers that create nice jobs for themselves.
...except for muslims......
Where does dictator get the power to do this
Shouldn’t Congress have oversight control
**The new policy represents the second time the agency has tightened the rules on trafficking grants in the last few years. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which opposes contraception and abortion on moral grounds, lost funding in 2011 when the agency started giving preference to groups that offer the “full range of services,” including abortion counseling.
The newest guidance, which was posted June 19 and applies to grants being awarded in the fall, further tightens the rules by requiring groups to ensure contraceptives and abortion counseling are made available to trafficked women via a third party.**
Oh, boy. Talk about discrimination.
"Religious groups that refuse abortion counseling no longer can get grants to help trafficking victims unless they ensure the counseling is provided by a third party, under new guidelines by the Department of Health and Human Services."
FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument
If I understand the info in the OP correctly, the states have never delegated to the feds, expressly via the Constitution, the specific power to tax and spend for abortion purposes. So no group should be receiving such vote-winning funding.
The corrupt House wrongly passed bills appropriating such funding, and the corrupt, post-17th Amendment ratification Senate likewise wrongly passed such bills.
Good question.
I will tie them to the USCCB
Why does obama want blacks to live with whites? Does he believe whites are the greatest people in the world? Does he believe blacks aren’t capable of building anything nice for themselves?
You take the king’s shilling’ you are the king’s man....
We need to end the Beast sooner rather than later. Abolish the IRS, let the Fed borrow money to pay back their loans till eternity ends. All that IRS withholding of funds and payments to them goes straight to the interest on the debt. There should be no deduction for charitable contributions, there should be no deductions for political spending. If you paid by check to the IRS, if you can look at where it was deposited. YEP, the Federal Reserve not the U.S. Treasury.
It does sound like discrimination the way it’s written. Oh well.
Islamic schools exempt, of course. /no sarc
No. He wants the predators to get in close to their prey. And yes, most white suburbanites (esp. females) per polling stats are left-wing idiots and therefor easy prey.
Precisely, sir.
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