LOS ANGELES — Three California churches no longer have to cover abortion services as part of their employee health care plans after winning a years-long legal battle against the state, a federal court ruled Thursday.
The case, based on a lawsuit filed by the churches in 2015, weighed their claims of religious discrimination against the state's position that abortion services represent basic care that should generally be covered by all health care plans offered in the state.
U.S. District Chief Judge Kimberly Mueller, of the Eastern District of California, sided with the churches in her opinion for the court, writing that the California Department of Managed Health Care had violated the churches' 1st Amendment right to freely exercise their religion when it denied their requests for exemptions from the coverage requirement.
