SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - President Barack Obama's administration says California did not violate a religious freedom law when it ordered health insurance companies to pay for elective abortions.
The decision Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services upholds California's 2014 order requiring seven insurance companies to rescind policies that did not cover elective abortions.
The policies covered workers at organizations whose leadership object to abortion on moral grounds, including Catholic universities.
Three complaints were filed with federal authorities under the Weldon Amendment, which protects health care entities that object to abortion on religious grounds.
But the Obama administration says the state acted within its rights because its order applied to insurance companies, not the employers that have a moral objection to abortion.
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