{"id":1626465,"date":"2022-08-30T08:18:48","date_gmt":"2022-08-30T12:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1626465"},"modified":"2022-08-30T08:19:58","modified_gmt":"2022-08-30T12:19:58","slug":"california-mandate-forcing-churches-to-pay-for-abortions-is-unconstitutional-district-court-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/california-mandate-forcing-churches-to-pay-for-abortions-is-unconstitutional-district-court-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"California Mandate Forcing Churches To Pay For Abortions Is Unconstitutional, District Court Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcalifornia-mandate-forcing-churches-to-pay-for-abortions-is-unconstitutional-district-court-rules%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1626465&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">A California district court <a href=\"https:\/\/adfmedialegalfiles.blob.core.windows.net\/files\/FoothillChurchDecision.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ruled<\/a> Thursday that a state law mandating companies, including religious organizations, pay for elective abortions as part of their health insurance plans is unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California sided with three California churches \u2014 Foothill Church in Glendora, Calvary Chapel Chino Hills in Chino, and the Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch \u2014 in their challenge to the state\u2019s Knox Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975.<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The court ruled against the California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC), which sent letters in 2014 to seven private health insurers \u201cdirecting them to remove any limitations on or exclusions of abortion care services from the health care coverage they offered to various employers,\u201d which included the three plaintiffs.<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Since the churches each employ more than 50 full-time employees, they must provide health insurance to their employees under the state law.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">DMHC sent the letters after Planned Parenthood asked the state to \u201cfix\u201d such exemptions \u201cto ensure that employers cannot deny women coverage of abortion services,\u201d according to <a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/adfmedialegalfiles.blob.core.windows.net\/files\/FoothillEmailExhibits.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">emails<\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0shared by Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Alliance Defending Freedom, a nonprofit legal organization for protecting religious freedoms that represented the churches, filed a motion in April asking the court to \u201cdefinitively rule in their favor and allow the churches to operate according to their religious beliefs, which uphold the sanctity of unborn lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Jeremiah Galus, the nonprofit\u2019s senior counsel, <a href=\"https:\/\/adfmedia.org\/case\/foothill-church-v-watanabe\">said<\/a> that the government could not force churches or any other employers in religious organizations to fund abortions, which would violate their faith and conscience.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cFor years, California has unconstitutionally targeted faith-based organizations, so we\u2019re pleased the court has found this mandate unconstitutional and will allow the churches we represent to operate freely according to their religious beliefs,\u201d Galus said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cElective abortions are not part of \u2018basic health care,\u2019\u201d Galus added. \u201cThey have no business being forced into the medical coverage provided by churches that do not wish to support terminating lives due to very real, sincere, and well-known faith convictions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Chief Judge Kimberly J. Mueller, appointed by former President Barack Obama, summarized in her opinion for the court that Mary Watanabe, the director of the DMHC, \u201chas not shown \u2018[she] lacks other means of achieving [her] desired goal without imposing a substantial burden on the exercise of religion by [plaintiffs].\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cThe Director\u2019s denial of the Churches\u2019 request for exceptions to accommodate their religious beliefs, based solely on the fact that those requests did not originate with a plan, was not narrowly tailored to serve a compelling interest,\u201d Mueller added.<\/p>\n<p>California lawmakers are poised to improve <span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201creproductive health care in the state,<span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201d following the landmark ruling by the Supreme Court to overturn <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Cal Matter <a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/health\/2022\/06\/abortion-data-california\/\">reports<\/a> that Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and legislators pledged more than $200 million towards <span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201creproductive health care,<span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201d with most insurance plans in the state required to eliminate out-of-pocket fees for abortion services next year and redirect the money to pay for primarily uninsured Californians and out-of-state residents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A California district court ruled Thursday that a state law mandating companies, including religious organizations, pay for elective abortions as part of their health insurance plans is unconstitutional. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California sided with three California churches \u2014 Foothill Church in Glendora, Calvary Chapel Chino Hills in Chino, and &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1626468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1626465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1626465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1626465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1626465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1626468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1626465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1626465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1626465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}