{"id":332970,"date":"2025-06-18T08:44:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T13:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=332970"},"modified":"2025-06-17T14:00:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T19:00:05","slug":"supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court tells NY court to revisit decision forcing religious employers to cover abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>The Supreme Court has ordered a New York Appeals Court to revisit its decision to allow a state insurance mandate to force religious employers to fund abortion.<\/p>\n<h3>KEY TAKEAWAYS:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>In 2017, New York state issued a mandate requiring employers to include abortion in health insurance plans, but the allowed religious exemptions were so narrow as to be nearly non-existent.<\/li>\n<li>The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany sued, claiming it was a violation of religious freedom.<\/li>\n<li>A court of appeals rejected the diocese&#8217;s lawsuit, which prompted the diocese to turn to the Supreme Court.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>THE DETAILS:<\/h3>\n<p>Earlier this month, the Supreme Court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/supreme-court\/supreme-court-rules-catholic-groups-unlawfully-barred-religious-exempt-rcna202654\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ruled in favor<\/a> of Catholic Charities in Wisconsin, finding that the state discriminated against religious groups in violation of the free exercise clause of the Constitution&#8217;s First Amendment.<\/p>\n<p>Based on that ruling, the Supreme Court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/264771\/supreme-court-orders-new-york-to-revisit-abortion-mandate-case-after-religious-liberty-win\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ordered<\/a> the New York Court of Appeals to reconsider its decision in <em>Diocese of Albany v. Harris<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNew York wants to browbeat nuns into paying for abortions for serving all in need,\u201d said Eric Baxter, vice president of the Becket Fund. \u201cFor the second time in four years, the Supreme Court has made clear that bully tactics like these have no place in our nation or our law. We are confident that these religious groups will finally be able to care for the most vulnerable consistent with their beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jones Day, another law firm representing the coalition (the Catholic diocese, Lutheran and Baptist churches, and Anglican nuns) opposing the abortion mandate, also issued a statement. \u201cReligious groups in the Empire State should not be forced to provide insurance coverage that violates their deeply held religious beliefs,&#8221; said Noel J. Francisco, the Partner-in-Charge Washington for Jones Day.<\/p>\n<h3>THE BACKSTORY:<\/h3>\n<p>The New York State Department of Financial Services required employer health plans to cover \u201cmedically necessary\u201d abortions in 2017, initially with religious exemptions included. But under pressure from abortion activists, those exemptions were narrowed enough to be practically non-existent.<\/p>\n<p>The only organizations granted exemptions were non-profit organizations with the primary purpose of \u201cinculcation of religious values,\u201d and those employing and serving only people who share the same beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>As the Catholic Church both serves and employs people of diverse religious beliefs, it would not qualify for this narrow exemption.<\/p>\n<p>Under the mandate, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.southavewomensservices.com\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-your-right-to-abortion-in-new-york-state\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">medically necessary<\/a>\u201d abortions are defined as \u201cnecessary to prevent, diagnose, correct, or cure conditions in the person that cause acute suffering, endanger life, result in illness or infirmity, interfere with a person\u2019s capacity for normal activity, or threaten some significant handicap.\u201d The <em>abortionist<\/em> is the one who determines whether or not an abortion can be considered &#8220;medically necessary.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Governor Kathy Hochul said that those who oppose the ruling are &#8220;right-wing extremists,&#8221; who are attempting to undermine &#8220;fundamental freedoms&#8221; \u2014 though she seemingly had no concern for preserving the fundamental right of religious freedom which all people hold under the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/actnow.io\/G3Bhv6M\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-332271\" src=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-700x251.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"251\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-700x251.jpg 700w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-300x107.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-768x275.jpg 768w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-500x179.jpg 500w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02.jpg 1167w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court has ordered a New York Appeals Court to revisit its decision to allow a state insurance mandate to force religious employers to fund abortion. KEY TAKEAWAYS: In 2017, New York state issued a mandate requiring employers to include abortion in health insurance plans, but the allowed religious exemptions were so narrow as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":332988,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[3473,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Supreme Court tells NY court to revisit decision forcing religious employers to cover abortion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"SCOTUS ordered a NY Appeals Court to revisit its decision to allow a state insurance mandate to force religious employers to fund abortion.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supreme Court tells NY court to revisit decision forcing religious employers to cover abortion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SCOTUS ordered a NY Appeals Court to revisit its decision to allow a state insurance mandate to force religious employers to fund abortion.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-18T13:44:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-17T19:00:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-1402981510-pray.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cassy Cooke\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cassy Cooke\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cassy Cooke\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392\"},\"headline\":\"Supreme Court tells NY court to revisit decision forcing religious employers to cover abortion\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-18T13:44:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-17T19:00:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/\"},\"wordCount\":487,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Newsbreak\",\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/\",\"name\":\"Supreme Court tells NY court to revisit decision forcing religious employers to cover abortion\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-18T13:44:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-17T19:00:05+00:00\",\"description\":\"SCOTUS ordered a NY Appeals Court to revisit its decision to allow a state insurance mandate to force religious employers to fund abortion.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Supreme Court tells NY court to revisit decision forcing religious employers to cover abortion\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, &amp; Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392\",\"name\":\"Cassy Cooke\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Cassy Cooke\"},\"description\":\"Cassy has over 20 years of experience as a writer and editor, most of which have been spent covering pro-life issues like abortion, disability rights, euthanasia, and more.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/cassy-fiano\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Supreme Court tells NY court to revisit decision forcing religious employers to cover abortion","description":"SCOTUS ordered a NY Appeals Court to revisit its decision to allow a state insurance mandate to force religious employers to fund abortion.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Supreme Court tells NY court to revisit decision forcing religious employers to cover abortion","og_description":"SCOTUS ordered a NY Appeals Court to revisit its decision to allow a state insurance mandate to force religious employers to fund abortion.","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2025-06-18T13:44:43+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-06-17T19:00:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":650,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-1402981510-pray.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cassy Cooke","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cassy Cooke","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/"},"author":{"name":"Cassy Cooke","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392"},"headline":"Supreme Court tells NY court to revisit decision forcing religious employers to cover abortion","datePublished":"2025-06-18T13:44:43+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-17T19:00:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/"},"wordCount":487,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Newsbreak","Politics"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/","name":"Supreme Court tells NY court to revisit decision forcing religious employers to cover abortion","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-06-18T13:44:43+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-17T19:00:05+00:00","description":"SCOTUS ordered a NY Appeals Court to revisit its decision to allow a state insurance mandate to force religious employers to fund abortion.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/supreme-court-ny-revisit-religious-employers-abortion\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Supreme Court tells NY court to revisit decision forcing religious employers to cover abortion"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, &amp; Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392","name":"Cassy Cooke","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Cassy Cooke"},"description":"Cassy has over 20 years of experience as a writer and editor, most of which have been spent covering pro-life issues like abortion, disability rights, euthanasia, and more.","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/cassy-fiano\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332970"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332970"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333008,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332970\/revisions\/333008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}