Wyden, Merkley Slam Trump Administration Over Scheme to Undermine Reproductive Health Care in Oregon, Twelve Other States

Wyden, Merkley Slam Trump Administration Over Scheme to Undermine Reproductive Health Care in Oregon, Twelve Other States

Letter follows launch of investigation into states that require health insurance plans to cover abortion care

Washington, D.C. - Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden and Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Merkley, both D-Ore., today slammed the Trump administration over recent news that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has launched an investigation into 13 states, including Oregon, that require health insurers to cover abortion care.

Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022, 21 states have banned or severely restricted abortion. Abortion care remains legal in the state of Oregon and remaining other states, 13 of which require insurance companies to cover the cost of abortion care, making it more accessible to low-income women, particularly those in underserved and rural areas. Wyden slammed the Trump administration's investigation as a politically-motivated attempt to claw back access to reproductive care in states where it remains legal.

"This investigation is a gross overreach of federal authority," Wyden and Merkley wrote in their letter to HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., and Paula Stannard, the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at HHS. "You are weaponizing your department to target states where reproductive health care remains legal in a blatant attempt to deny women the care they need."

The text of the letter is here.

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