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The state of Illinois apparently has decided to relitigate the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision, which concluded the First Amendment prevents the government from ordering religious believers to violate their conscience by requiring them to pay for abortion.
In response, the Thomas More Society is suing the state "to challenge a law requiring all health insurance policies sold in the state to provide coverage for elective chemical and surgical abortions, with no exemptions, even for churches."
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The complaint, filed this week, accuses the state of abusing the Illinois Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act in relation to the abortion insurance mandate.
The case was filed on behalf of a Baptist church association, a dental practice and its owner, and a freight company and its owner. The lawsuit charges that Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, the department of insurance and its director, Robert Muriel, have refused to protect the plaintiffs’ sincerely held religious beliefs, which forbid them from funding and providing coverage for elective abortions.
Peter Breen, Thomas More senior counsel, said, "Radical partisans have forced employers of faith in Illinois into a terrible choice: either pay for the intentional termination of unborn children, or leave your employees’ families and your own without health insurance.
"The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly condemned this sort of government coercion against people of faith, including in the 2014 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. decision. Illinois law protects the sincerely held beliefs of our state’s nonprofits and businesses, but our state’s politicians and bureaucrats have sat silent in response to the conscientious objections of people of faith to paying for elective abortions," he said.
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The law was adopted last year with only Democrats supporting it.
Their Reproductive Health Act mandates that every health insurance plan in Illinois that provides pregnancy-related benefits must also provide coverage for abortion. The law allows "no way to opt out" for those whose faith forbids participation.
The case seeks judicial review of the abortion coverage mandate, asking the court to declare it unlawful.
"This forced coverage of abortion is a blatant violation of the religious and conscience rights of Illinoisans," explained Breen. "While the secular forces behind this mandate often erroneously object to any influence of religion on the state, here they had no hesitation in wielding state power against our sincerely held, common-sense religious beliefs, which compel us to avoid paying for health insurance coverage of abortion."
