Oregon Right to Life (ORTL) filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday against the state over its mandate that all employers that provide health insurance to their employees must also cover abortion.
Though the Reproductive Health Equity Act passed in 2017 provides exceptions for religious organizations, ORTL does not fit the narrow definition provided by the state because it does not primarily serve people who share its religious beliefs. Over the course of the last few years, ORTL has asked for an exemption to the mandate, but it has been both refused and ignored.
“As a pro-life organization, no one questions that we hold deep moral objections to abortion,” said ORTL executive director Lois Anderson in a press release. “We are only asking for what every American expects, to be free to live according to our conscience and operate our organization according to our sincerely held belief that unborn human beings deserve protection from the violence of abortion.”
In its suit, the pro-life organization is arguing that because the state does allow exceptions for some groups, it needs to show a compelling reason why it won’t give the same deference to ORTL. The group argues, “Because ORTL’s employees agree with ORTL’s beliefs, Oregon has no compelling reason to require coverage since the employees don’t want it. So ORTL should get an exception.”
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The organization is comparing its case to a similar abortion coverage mandate in California. In a suit against that law, the Court found that the California law violated the religious liberty of objecting churches under the Supreme Court’s 2021 decision, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia.
“Forcing pro-life Oregon Right to Life to fund abortion insurance is outrageous. Legislative testimony made ORTL and its opposition known to the legislature, but it didn’t care,” said James Bopp, Jr., counsel for ORTL. “Fortunately, the First Amendment protects ORTL. ORTL should get an exception from Oregon’s abortion-insurance mandate just as California churches recently got one from California’s abortion-insurance mandate.”
