The ACLU and coalition partners sent this May 16 letter to leadership of the House Committee on Appropriations, expressing opposition to policy riders to FY 2017 spending bills that would undermine women’s access to health care while purporting to protect religious liberty. The letter focuses on the Weldon Amendment, a rider attached to the Labor-HHS appropriations bill annually since 2004 that bars the bill’s funds from going to any federal, state, or local program that subjects a health care entity to “discrimination” based on that entity’s refusal to provide, pay for, or refer for abortions. The letter also details how opponents of safe, legal abortion have used the Weldon Amendment to interfere with women’s access to reproductive health care at all levels of government, as well as sought to expand it through measures like the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (ANDA) and the Health Care Conscience Rights Act (HCCRA).