April 10, 2026
The Honorable Susan Collins
Chair
U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations
S-128, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Tom Cole
Chair
U.S. House Committee on Appropriations
H-307, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Patty Murray
Vice Chair
U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations
S-146A, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Rosa DeLauro
Ranking Member
U.S. House Committee on Appropriations
1036 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairs Collins and Cole, Vice Chair Murray, and Ranking Member DeLauro:
We, the undersigned 65+ organizations that support reproductive health, rights, and justice, write to urge you to eliminate the harmful Weldon Amendment from the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 appropriations package. The Weldon Amendment is a budget rider in the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) appropriations bill that, for far too long, has allowed personal beliefs, not patient health and the standard of care, to determine the care a patient receives.
Access to reproductive health care—including abortion—is vital to gender justice. The ability to decide whether and when to carry a pregnancy and become a parent is crucial to a person’s liberty, equality, and economic security. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s lawless decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, reports of delayed or denied care for pregnant people have become ubiquitous, and Congress must act urgently to protect the freedom of all people to control their bodies, lives, and futures.
The Weldon Amendment Prioritizes Personal Beliefs Over Patient Health
Since FY 2005, the Weldon Amendment has been attached to the discriminatory Hyde Amendment—a rider that bans the use of certain federal funds to cover abortion, with only limited exceptions—in the annual Labor-HHS bill. While the Weldon Amendment is deceptively written to prohibit “discrimination” against health care entities that refuse to provide, cover, pay for, or refer for abortion, it really allows health care providers—including hospitals and health insurance plans, as well as individual nurses and doctors—to discriminate against patients by refusing to provide the care they need.
By giving a green light to refusals of abortion care, the Weldon Amendment puts patients’ health and lives in danger, even in states where abortion is legal. A single instance of being refused care can mean a patient never getting the care they need—or receiving it only after enduring significant delays and harm. There are no provisions in the Weldon Amendment to protect patient access to abortion services.
The Weldon Amendment is especially harmful because it has been weaponized to intimidate states that seek to protect abortion access by threatening critical federal health funding. For example, in December 2020—during the COVID-19 pandemic—the Trump Administration attempted to strip California of $800 million in federal funding annually because of a state law that ensures residents have insurance coverage of abortion. And recently, in January 2026, the Trump administration threatened to cut federal funding to Illinois over state law provisions that ensure patients are able to access the care they need by requiring providers to give referrals if they are unwilling to provide the care themselves because of personal beliefs or objections. The Trump administration threatened Illinois with penalties even though these provisions are being challenged in court and not currently enforced. Once again, the administration is weaponizing the Weldon Amendment to undermine commonsense policies in pursuit of its anti-abortion agenda.
The first Trump administration issued rules that relied on the Weldon Amendment and other refusal of care laws to allow virtually any entity involved in health care—from doctors to schedulers to nurses to ambulance drivers—to deny patients care and even information about care. Fortunately, many harmful provisions of these policies were blocked and reversed, but efforts to expand and weaponize the Weldon Amendment continue.
Eliminating the Weldon Amendment is not only critical as a matter of policy, it is also popular with voters. This was evident even before the Dobbs decision—a July 2021 poll in battleground congressional districts found that 6 in 10 voters oppose allowing health care providers to refuse treatment to a woman seeking an abortion because of religious or moral beliefs. In a June 2022 poll of likely 2022 voters, the majority opposed the idea that institutions, including insurance companies (66% of respondents), employers (63%), and hospitals (59%), should be able to refuse abortion care based on personal or religious beliefs. Nearly two-thirds recognized that refusal of care laws put patients’ health and lives in danger.
The need to eliminate the harmful Weldon Amendment is critical in this moment, as states ban abortion and refusals of care worsen, with reports of patients being turned away for essential medical care and urgent medical interventions. Fortunately, both the House and Senate in FY 2022 and 2023 made historic progress by removing the harmful Weldon and Hyde Amendments from their Labor-HHS bills. Congress must demonstrate its commitment to serve the will of the people by removing the Weldon Amendment permanently from its FY 2027 appropriations bills.
Sincerely,
Abortion Forward
Abortion Liberation Fund in Pennsylvania
ACCESS REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE
Advocates for Trans Equality
Advocates for Youth
All* Above All
American Association of University Women (AAUW)
American Atheists
American Humanist Association
American Society for Reproductive Medicine
Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Arkansas Black Gay Men’s Forum
Autistic Self Advocacy Network
Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network
California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network
Center for Biological Diversity
Center for Reproductive Rights
Central Florida Birth Network
Clearinghouse on Women’s Issues
Doctors for America
Equal Rights Advocates
Equality California
Equality Florida
Feminist Majority
FL National Organization for Women
Guttmacher Institute
Human Rights Campaign
Ibis Reproductive Health
In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda
Indivisible
Institute for Women’s Policy Research
Interfaith Alliance
Japanese American Citizens League
Lawyers for Good Government
League of Women Voters of the United States
MomsRising
NAACP
National Abortion Federation
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
National Association of Social Workers
National Council of Jewish Women
National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association
National Health Law Program (NHeLP)
National Institute for Reproductive Health
National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice
National Network of Abortion Funds
National Organization For Women
National Partnership for Women & Families
National Women’s Law Center
National Women’s Political Caucus
People Power United
Physicians for Reproductive Health
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Poder Latinx
Population Connection Action Fund
Positive Women’s Network-USA
Power to Decide
Protect Our Care
Reproductive Freedom For All
SEIU
Silver State Equality
Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine
The TransLatin@ Coalition
UCSF Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health
UltraViolet Action
Union for Reform Judaism
URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity
Virginia Women’s Foundation
Women of Reform Judaism