The Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights on Thursday announced investigations into 13 states for allegedly "coercing" healthcare entities to provide abortions.

HHS is probing whether the states violated the Weldon Amendment, which is a 2005 appropriations provision that says any state or local government that receives federal funds cannot “discriminate” against any healthcare provider that refuses to cover, pay for, refer, or provide an abortion, The Hill news outlet reported.

“OCR launches these investigations to address certain states’ alleged disregard of, or confusion about, compliance with the Weldon Amendment,” OCR Director Paula Stannard said in a statement. “Under the Weldon Amendment, health care entities, such as health insurance issuers and health plans, are protected from state discrimination for not paying for, or providing coverage of, abortion contrary to conscience. Period.”

The states under investigation are California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. HHS gave the states 20 days to respond to letters regarding the probes.

Officials told the news outlet that the probes were not prompted by any complaints regarding the states, but it was “largely, I think, because the prior administration closed complaints.”

In 2021, the Biden administration withdrew a notice of violation issued to California by the Trump administration the year before. At the time, the Biden HHS stated in a letter that the scope of a “health care entity” under the Weldon Amendment was narrower than previously interpreted, finding that churches and religious organizations were not included in this category.

“We believe that it reflected an unduly narrow reading of the statute. We also disavowed downstream impacts of the legal position taken in 2021, which imposed certain requirements on complainants of protected parties that were not grounded in the state statute,” an HHS official said.

“And by publicly repudiating that 2021 letter, we informed states and other entities, including those protected by the Weldon amendment, that they should no longer rely on this now repeated legal position.”

In January, the OCR announced plans to promote Weldon Amendment compliance, issuing a notice of violation to Illinois.