Last fall, three federal courts—in the Southern District of the New York, the Northern District of California, and the Eastern District of Washington—vacated the Department of Health and Human Services’ conscience rule, which sought to expand healthcare providers’ rights to deny care on religious or moral grounds. In amicus briefs supporting the vacatur, Policy Integrity criticized HHS for, among other things, failing to consider the new policy’s likely health costs for women and LGBT individuals.
Recently, the Department of Health and Human Services appealed all three rulings. We filed amicus briefs opposing those appeals in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Ninth Circuit. Our briefs once again focus on fundamental flaws in HHS's cost-benefit analysis for the conscience rule.