National Right to Life Welcomes Federal Court Decision Protecting Oregon Right to Life from Oregon Law Requiring Employers to Provide Abortion Insurance
WASHINGTON — National Right to Life today welcomed a federal district court decision declaring unconstitutional, as applied to Oregon Right to Life, an Oregon law that would have required the organization to provide abortion coverage in its employee health insurance plan despite its deeply held religious objections to abortion.
“This decision is an important affirmation that the government cannot force pro-life organizations to choose between remaining faithful to their deeply held convictions and providing for their employees,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “This liberty is not reserved for organizations the government happens to favor. The First Amendment protects every American’s right to live and work according to sincerely held beliefs.”
“We congratulate Oregon Right to Life, James Bopp, Jr., and his legal team for their steadfast defense of these fundamental constitutional principles,” Tobias continued. “This ruling strengthens protections not only for Oregon Right to Life, but also for other faith-based and pro-life organizations that should never be compelled by the government to violate their conscience.”
The ruling follows litigation brought by Oregon Right to Life challenging Oregon’s abortion insurance mandate. The organization was represented by James Bopp, Jr., National Right to Life’s General Counsel and lead counsel in the case. The court concluded that Oregon’s law violated the First Amendment by favoring certain religious organizations over others through its system of exemptions, relying in part on the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission.
The following statement was released by James Bopp, Jr., lead counsel for Oregon Right to Life:
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Federal Court Declares Oregon Law Requiring Employers to Provide Abortion Insurance Unconstitutional as Applied to Oregon Right to Life
On Wednesday, Oregon’s federal district court issued an order that declared unconstitutional an Oregon law that would have forced Oregon Right to Life (“ORTL”), a pro-life organization that objects to abortion on religious grounds, to pay for abortion coverage in its employee health insurance plans. This comes after a long-fought legal battle in which ORTL originally challenged the Oregon law (the “Abortion Mandate”) in September 2023.
ORTL argued that the Abortion Mandate violated core First Amendment principles of religious neutrality. While the Abortion Mandate purported to generally require employers in Oregon to provide such insurance coverage, it contained a slew of exemptions. Those exemptions included both some secular employers and some religious employers favored by the state. The district court agreed with ORTL that because Oregon thereby explicitly provided preferential treatment for certain religious organizations over others, it violated the First Amendment.
The court noted the striking similarity between ORTL’s challenge and a case recently decided by the Supreme Court, Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission. In Catholic Charities, the Supreme Court analyzed a Wisconsin law containing an exemption that had the same effect as the “religious employer” exemption contained in the Abortion Mandate, granting an exception to religious entities favored by the state. In that case, the Supreme Court found that the Wisconsin law was subject to the most stringent form of judicial scrutiny due to its explicit differentiation between religions.
Oregon’s district court found that the same was true of the Abortion Mandate. In turn, because Oregon did not explain how the Abortion Mandate’s exemption could satisfy the requisite high level of judicial scrutiny, the court declared that it was unconstitutional as applied to ORTL.
The district court’s order makes clear that ORTL was entitled to judicial relief because of its particular characteristics—an entity with a religiously motivated purpose that is directly at odds with the Abortion Mandate. Accordingly, the order provides a basis for entities with similar characteristics to seek an exemption—and, if necessary, further judicial relief—from the Abortion Mandate.
James Bopp, Jr., of The Bopp Law Firm, PC, lead counsel for ORTL, stated, “The district court correctly recognized what the United States Supreme Court has said repeatedly: states may not favor certain religious practices over others. The United States Supreme Court in Catholic Charities made it clear that states may not play fast-and-loose with that rule and avoid its grasp by simply adopting an arcane or hyper-specific redefinition of what it means to be religious. The First Amendment means what it says, regardless of how state bureaucrats may attempt to change its meaning.”
Lois Anderson, ORTL’s Executive Director, said, “Oregon’s federal district court made the right decision. On its face, the attempt to force a pro-life organization to fund abortion is as ridiculous as it is unconstitutional. In his written opinion, Judge Kasubhai affirmed that our religious freedom to carry out our pro-life convictions is protected under the First Amendment. This decision is a huge win for our organization and for all our volunteers and supporters across the state. It also sets a powerful precedent for other pro-life people and organizations here in Oregon, helping them stand up for their rights to live out their pro-life beliefs without state interference.”
Read the court’s opinion here.
Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide, and euthanasia.