Supreme Court sides with Biden administration in fight with Oklahoma over abortion

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Oklahoma’s request to receive federal money for reproductive health care without providing referrals for abortion to those who request it.

Oklahoma is one of eleven states challenging a federal requirement that pregnant women receive access to information about all options − including abortion − as a condition of accepting federal money for family planning and preventive care.

Oklahoma told the Supreme Court it should be allowed to receive the money while the litigation against the federal Department of Health and Human Services plays out.

“Depriving those communities of Title X services would be devastating,” the state’s lawyers told the court. “In many instances, particularly in rural Oklahoma, the county health department is one of the only access points for critical preventative services for tens or even hundreds of miles.”

But the court denied the emergency request.

Three of the court's six conservative justices − Clarence Thomas , Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch − said they would have granted the request.

The requirement was imposed by the Biden administration in 2021 when it reversed a Trump-era ban on abortion referrals in the state grant program.

Oklahoma argued the Biden administration’s condition is a violation of the state’s ban against helping someone get an abortion. And the state said the federal requirement also violates a federal law prohibiting discrimination against health care providers who do not provide abortion referrals.

The Department of Health and Human Services said health care providers receiving Title X grants don’t have to tell patients how they can get abortions, but they must provide the number for a national hotline that has information about abortion and other services.

The department terminated Oklahoma’s $4.5 million grant after the state said it would not comply. Tennessee has also lost Title X funding over the requirement .

Lower courts have so far sided with the administration.

A federal judge in Oklahoma said the Department of Health and Human Services has the ability to impose grant conditions and was skeptical that providing the hotline number “could translate into a violation of Oklahoma law.”

That decision was upheld by a divided panel of the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

It's one of multiple legal clashes between the Biden administration and states with strict abortion bans.

They're also battling over a federal requirement that hospitals provide emergency abortions and whether Alabama can criminally prosecute someone who helps an Alabamian get an out-of-state abortion. Also, Republican attorneys general for Idaho, Kansas and Missouri are challenging the widely used abortion drug mifepristone.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court sides with Biden administration in fight with Oklahoma over abortion