Court Rules Oregon Pro-Life Group Doesn’t Have to Pay for Abortions

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.”

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“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.