CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has joined a coalition of 17 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in support of a Texas nurse who says the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs shouldn’t be able to force her to participate in any abortion-related services.
The lawsuit was filed in the federal court in Waco. The coalition is asking the court to grant an injunction barring the VA from compelling the nurse and her colleagues to participate in providing any abortion-related services. The nurse filed the lawsuit after she requested a religious accommodation, but the VA informed her there is not a process for such accommodations.
According to the complaint, the VA is substantially burdening her freedom to exercise her religious beliefs in violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Morrisey
In response to President Biden’s directive, the VA adopted a new interim rule last year that makes taxpayer-funded abortions and abortion counseling available for certain veterans and beneficiaries. Those services previously had been expressly excluded from the medical benefits package under VA regulations.
“This administration needs to stop circumventing rulings from the United States Supreme Court to push its liberal agenda,” Morrisey said. “The issue of abortion is left up to the states, and the Supreme Court was very clear on that.
“I will always stand for the most vulnerable of our society and the sanctity of life.”
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey and returning the authority to regulate abortion to the states.
The coalition’s brief, filed January 18, included the argument that the VA’s rule “sought to override state abortion regulations that took effect after the Dobbs decision.”
“Under our constitutional system, elected representatives in states — not unelected bureaucrats in federal agencies — strike the balance between 'competing interests’ on abortion,” according to the brief. “The rule attempts to override the balance struck by states.
“If allowed to stand, the rule will harm the public interest.”
Morrisey joined the brief with his counterparts in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Utah.