California’s Obria Medical Clinics, a chain of anti-abortion pregnancy centers that bills itself as an alternative to Planned Parenthood, sued the Trump administration Monday because it says it will be forced to refer patients for abortions in exchange for accepting federal family planning funds.
At the heart of the challenge is a stayed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services that would have barred doctors who work for facilities receiving the funds, known as Title X grants, from directly referring their patients for abortions. The rule was aimed at ending some federal funding of Planned Parenthood. Obria agreed with the rule, but in April, a federal judge blocked it from taking effect, and Obria says that means it will be forced to follow old rules that require grant recipients to offer counseling for abortions and directly refer patients somewhere they can get one.
The Christian organization filed suit Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, saying it faced discrimination over its sincere, faith-based objection to abortion and that the Title X issue was unlikely to be resolved for years. The organization says the rules violate its First Amendment right to free speech, as well as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and is requesting declaratory and injunctive relief.
“Obria and its clinics are now put to a Hobson’s choice,” the group wrote in the lawsuit. “They may either accept the money — which would mean accepting the abortion referral requirement to which they have deep religious objections — or they can decline to do so, meaning that the funds will be forfeited and Obria clinics will be unable to provide much-needed healthcare to needy women across California.”
Obria’s Title X grants from the Trump administration were met with backlash because the group does not prescribe birth control, though it does advise patients on how to use natural methods that include tracking a woman’s ovulation so couples know which days of the month they are less likely to get pregnant.
Title X grants cannot pay for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or when a woman’s pregnancy threatens her life, but the funds are supposed to pay for low-income people to access contraception, as well as cancer screenings and testing for sexually transmitted infections.
Obria applied for the grants after it partnered with a health center that does provide birth control and was awarded $5.1 million over three years. The organization said in the lawsuit that the funds would allow it to serve 4,000 more patients.
