(The Center Square) – Illinois officials have yet to respond to a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a 2019 state law that requires employers to offer insurance policies that cover abortions.
Three employers, represented by the Thomas More Society, filed the suit last Wednesday in Sangamon County. The lawsuit alleges the state requirement that any insurance plan covering pregnancy-related benefits must also cover costs related to abortion are “amoral and unconstitutional.”
The lawsuit asks the court to nullify the Reproductive Health Act of 2019.
“This association cannot morally participate in the funding of abortion which we declare to be in conflict with our deeply-held beliefs,” said Nate Adams, executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association in Springfield. “The state of Illinois is forcing us to do that and that is illegal.”
By enforcing the requirement, the suit claims the state is breaking the Illinois Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act, which grant flexibility in coverage or participation for those with religious objections to abortion.
The Illinois Department of Insurance, which is named in the suit along with director Robert Muriel, said through a spokesman they would not comment on pending litigation. Supporters of the law have claimed that access to abortion is a right that should not be restricted because of an employer’s religious beliefs.
Joining in the lawsuit is Dr. Richard Mantoan, dentist and owner of Southland Smiles in Flossmoor, and Rock River Cartage, a Sterling-based trucking company.
“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,” said Peter Breen, vice president and senior counsel for the Thomas More Society. “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.”
