From Oregon Right to Life v. O'Day, decided yesterday by Judge Mustafa Kasubhai (D. Ore.):
Oregon Right to Life … has one mission: to advocate for pro-life positions based on Judeo-Christian values. This singularly focused nonprofit, by operation of Oregon law, and in particular the religious exemption available to lawfully avoid compliance with this law, would [be forced] to purchase health insurance for its employees that would cover abortions and abortifacients—the very things the nonprofit exists to oppose on religious grounds. The Supreme Court, as this Opinion explains, has made clear that a nonprofit in Plaintiff's position must prevail on its as-applied challenge to the "religious employer" exemption….
The Oregon Legislature enacted RHEA to "ensure[] that Oregonians have access to comprehensive reproductive health care" including abortion and contraceptives, regardless of their income or insurance coverage. RHEA requires all health benefit plans in Oregon to "provide coverage" for abortion and "any contraceptive drug, device or product approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration." Further, a health benefit plan "may not infringe upon an enrollee's choice of contraceptive drug, device or product and may not require prior authorization.
RHEA exempted (among other things) "religious employers" "whose purpose is the inculcation of religious values," but Oregon Right to Life wasn't covered because its "purpose is prolife advocacy, not inculcating religious values, and [because Plaintiff] doesn't primarily serve persons sharing its religious tenets." The court held that limiting the religious exemption this way involved unconstitutional discrimination among religious objectors:
