{"id":333209,"date":"2025-06-23T16:41:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T21:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=333209"},"modified":"2025-06-23T02:34:25","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T07:34:25","slug":"oregon-right-life-overturn-decision-pay-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/oregon-right-life-overturn-decision-pay-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Oregon Right to Life seeking overturn of decision requiring it to pay for abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Oregon Right to Life<\/a>) On Tuesday, in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, attorney James Bopp, Jr., of The Bopp Law Firm, PC, argued that the appellate court should overrule the trial court\u2019s determination that Oregon could lawfully require Oregon Right to Life (\u201cORTL\u201d), a pro-life organization, to pay for abortion.<\/p>\n

The Oregon law in question (the \u201cMandate\u201d) requires virtually all health insurance plans to cover abortion. Even though ORTL objects to abortion on religious grounds, Oregon declined to provide an exception that would cover ORTL\u2014all while the state did include both secular exceptions and exceptions for other religious organizations in the Mandate.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, in plain violation of ORTL\u2019s religious liberty, the Mandate requires ORTL to purchase employee insurance plans that cover abortion, the very thing ORTL is devoted to fighting against.<\/p>\n

Attorney Bopp explained that the district court overlooked several key factors in its determination. For example, although ORTL had provided ample evidence of its religious beliefs, the trial court doubted ORTL\u2019s religiosity. Similarly, although the Mandate contains numerous secular exceptions, the district court relied on the single religiously-oriented exception (a minor exception which only gave an exemption to churches) to conclude that the law was favorable to religion.<\/p>\n