“New York is bullying nuns into bankrolling abortions because they serve all people, no matter their faith.”
A coalition of Christians, Muslims, Jews, legal scholars, and 20 states have joined with a group of New York nuns in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to protect their rights to teach and serve in their communities without being forced to fund abortions.
The Sisterhood of Saint Mary along with a diverse coalition of Anglican and Catholic nuns, Catholic dioceses, Christian churches, and faith-based social ministries sued New York after it mandated that they cover abortion in their employee health insurance plans in violation of their religious beliefs, according to CBN News.
The New York State Department of Financial Services initially proposed the abortion mandate in 2017 but promised to exempt employers with religious exemptions, according to Becket Law, a nonprofit legal group.
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However, after facing pressure from abortion activists, New York narrowed the exemption to cover only religious groups that both primarily teach religion, serve, and hire those who share their faith.
That meant that many faith-based organizations, like the Sisterhood of Saint Mary, would still be forced to violate their religious convictions about the sanctity of life.
In Diocese of Albany v. Harris, the group and other faith-based groups sued the state for religious protections, but New York refused to protect the religious organizations.
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In 2021, Becket, Jones Day, and Tobin and Dempf, LLP, asked the Supreme Court to intervene.
The high court reversed the New York ruling and told them to reconsider the case in light of Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, a case in which the high court ruled that Philadelphia was wrong to reject Catholic Social Services because the group said it wouldn’t violate its religious beliefs and place children with same-sex couples.
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But so far, New York state courts have ignored the order, according to Becket.
“New York is bullying nuns into bankrolling abortions because they serve all people, no matter their faith,” said Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel at Becket.
Now a coalition of Muslims, Jews, Christians; 20 states including Florida, Georgia and Texas; and legal scholars have joined the fight in asking the Supreme Court to block the NY abortion mandate.
“Religious organizations should be free to care for the needy without having to violate their beliefs,” said Baxter.
The groups who have joined in the legal fight explain that protecting religious freedom is especially critical for minority faiths. Notre Dame’s Religious Liberty Clinic shows how New York’s law will hurt vulnerable communities by shutting down the religious ministries that serve them.
In addition, a coalition of Catholic healthcare professionals and organizations is petitioning the high court to highlight how New York’s abortion mandate targets service-oriented religious groups that serve all people in need. The nation’s leading religious liberty law scholars have also joined the fight to argue that the abortion mandate violates the original meaning of the Constitution’s religious liberty protections.
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“Religious groups in the Empire State should not be forced to pay for insurance coverage that violates their deeply held religious beliefs,” said Noel J. Francisco, partner-in-charge of Jones Day’s Washington office. “This broad coalition is asking the Court to make that clear and protect a diverse group of religious ministries from New York’s mandate.”
The Supreme Court will consider whether to hear the case later this fall.
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