{"id":249208,"date":"2021-07-15T16:38:19","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T21:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=249208"},"modified":"2021-07-22T16:56:45","modified_gmt":"2021-07-22T21:56:45","slug":"washington-church-challenges-abortion-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/washington-church-challenges-abortion-coverage\/","title":{"rendered":"Court rules in favor of Washington church challenging state law abortion coverage mandate"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

UPDATE, 7\/22\/21:<\/strong> Alliance Defending Freedom announced in a July 22 press release<\/a> that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of Cedar Park Church. According to the release, the court noted that the church “properly challenged the state\u2019s abortion coverage mandate and that a lower court was wrong to dismiss the church\u2019s free-exercise claim.” The court stated in its ruling:<\/p>\n

Cedar Park\u2019s complaint plausibly alleged that, due to the enactment of SB 6219, its health insurer (Kaiser Permanente) stopped offering a plan with abortion coverage restrictions and Cedar Park could not procure comparable replacement coverage. This is sufficient to state an injury in fact that is fairly traceable to SB 6219.<\/em><\/p>\n

7\/15\/21:<\/strong> A church in Washington state is standing up to a 2018 law requiring churches and other religious institutions to include abortion coverage in employee healthcare plans that offer maternity benefits.<\/span><\/p>\n

Represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), Cedar Park Assembly of God filed a brief before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. The July 9\u00a0<\/span>filing<\/span><\/a> asked the court to overturn an earlier court decision that threw out the church\u2019s previous lawsuit in the issue. Attorneys for Cedar Park argued that the Washington state law violated the church\u2019s constitutional rights and its deeply held religious beliefs about the sanctity of human life from conception. The church also alleged that the law\u2019s exceptions for healthcare providers, but not for churches, meant that churches were specifically targeted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“We’re standing for the rights of people of faith to not be forced into being complicit with something inconsistent with our faith,” said senior pastor Rev. Jay Smith, according to <\/span>SeattlePi<\/span><\/a>. “Abortion is the antithesis of who we are as an organization, what our beliefs are, and how we live our faith.” The church draws around 1,500 worshippers a week and employs around 185 people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

READ:<\/strong>\u00a0Religious groups appeal to Supreme Court in fight against New York\u2019s pro-abortion mandate<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the <\/span>Washington Times<\/span><\/a>, attorneys for the state have argued that the church was not injured or burdened by the law because they are able to buy insurance from other, exempt providers. Yet as the filing argues, \u201cNo evidence supports the court\u2019s assumption that Cedar Park could obtain an abortion-excluding group health plan from a different insurance provider. That such a plan might be available to a few ministries elsewhere has no impact on Cedar Park\u2019s injury or standing to challenge [the law].”<\/span><\/p>\n

Cedar Park argued that the 9th Circuit should follow the precedent it set last year in a similar California case when, as Live Action News <\/span>reported<\/span><\/a>, the 9th Circuit ruled in favor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego. Skyline had argued that a California law violated constitutional religious liberty protections by forcing the church to cover abortions in its healthcare plans. The 9th Circuit ruled that Skyline Church had legal standing to challenge the law.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

California\u2019s similar law ran afoul of not only churches, but also federal law. Last December, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) withheld $200 million in Medicaid funds from California for its \u201cunlawful abortion insurance mandate,\u201d according to a <\/span>press release<\/span><\/a>. HHS alleged that California\u2019s law \u201cviolates a federal anti-discrimination law known as the Weldon Amendment, which protects entities from being forced to provide, pay for, or provide coverage for abortions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

ADF Legal Counsel Elissa Graves<\/span> argued that Washington state\u2019s law violates Cedar Park\u2019s constitutional rights. \u201cChurches must be free to operate according to their religious convictions, including the belief that human life begins at conception and is sacred,\u201d Graves said, according to a <\/span>press release<\/span><\/a>. \u201cWashington state has no legal or constitutional basis to force Cedar Park to provide insurance coverage for abortions\u2014an action that directly contradicts the church\u2019s extensive work in caring for vulnerable individuals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cedar Park Assembly of God lives out its pro-life beliefs in a variety of ways, according to an ADF <\/span>blog post<\/span><\/a>: \u201cThe church is involved in various pro-life ministries. It partners with foster care and adoption agencies, supports a local pregnancy center, and even co-founded an adoption agency for frozen embryos remaining after in vitro fertilization.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Alliance Defending Freedom defines itself as \u201cthe world\u2019s largest legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, marriage and family, parental rights, and the sanctity of life,\u201d according to its <\/span>website<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATE, 7\/22\/21: Alliance Defending Freedom announced in a July 22 press release that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of Cedar Park Church. According to the release, the court noted that the church “properly challenged the state\u2019s abortion coverage mandate and that a lower court was wrong to dismiss the church\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":606,"featured_media":249221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4,3473],"tags":[11013,10661,2978,11011,11010,6332,8014,351,5709,703,11012,3139,11014,889,4475,4317],"yoast_head":"\nCourt rules in favor of Washington church challenging state law abortion coverage mandate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A church in Washington is standing up to a 2018 law requiring religious institutions to include abortion coverage in employee healthcare plans.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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