{"id":1633164,"date":"2022-09-05T09:18:35","date_gmt":"2022-09-05T13:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1633164"},"modified":"2022-09-05T09:18:50","modified_gmt":"2022-09-05T13:18:50","slug":"california-churches-to-be-exempt-from-providing-abortion-coverage-to-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/california-churches-to-be-exempt-from-providing-abortion-coverage-to-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"California Churches to Be Exempt From Providing Abortion Coverage to Employees"},"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\">22<\/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-churches-to-be-exempt-from-providing-abortion-coverage-to-employees%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=1633164&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 class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999paragraph\"><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999normaltextrun\">Three churches in California are exercising their religious freedom\u2014a federal court ruled\u2014and no longer have to cover <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-abortion\">abortion<\/a> services through health care plans for employees, as of Aug. 25.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999eop\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999paragraph\"><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999normaltextrun\">U.S. District Court Chief Judge Kimberly Mueller of\u00a0the Eastern District of California ruled in favor of the three churches\u2014Foothill Church in Glendora, Calvary Chapel Chino Hills in Chino, and Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch\u2014which could potentially lead other religious groups and agencies to exclude such health care coverage by exercising religious freedom guaranteed under First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999paragraph\"><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999normaltextrun\">Beginning in 2014, the California Department of Managed Health Care ordered companies to cover abortion procedures when providing healthcare coverage to employees. However, some churches felt this interfered with their religious beliefs that oppose abortion as morally wrong.<\/span><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999eop\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999normaltextrun\">The churches asked that abortion be covered only if the life of the mother was at stake and it was necessary to save her life.<\/span><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999eop\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999paragraph\"><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999normaltextrun\">In 2015, the three churches filed complaints against the state department, claiming they have a right to be exempt from the state policy requiring abortion services as part of basic health care coverage.<\/span><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999eop\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999paragraph\"><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999normaltextrun\">In 2019, the district court dismissed their complaint. The churches appealed to the Ninth<\/span><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999normaltextrun\">\u00a0Circuit Court of Appeals, which kicked the case back to the district court in 2021 for reconsideration.<\/span><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999eop\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999paragraph\"><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999normaltextrun\">The Ninth<\/span><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999normaltextrun\">\u00a0Circuit Court of Appeals acted in response to last year\u2019s court ruling in\u00a0Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania <\/span><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999normaltextrun\">\u2014also a religious-freedom case. Philadelphia contracts with Catholic Social Services, to certify foster families but later threatened to stop working with the agency because it refused to certify unmarried and same-sex couples.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999eop\">\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999normaltextrun\">The court ruled in favor of the agency, saying the city violated the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999eop\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999paragraph\"><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999normaltextrun\">When the California case was finally being reconsidered, the three churches cited the free exercise clause in the First Amendment to the Constitution, \u201cCongress shall make no law \u2026 prohibiting the free exercise [of religion].\u201d\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999eop\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999paragraph\"><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999normaltextrun\">Meanwhile, the director of the state\u00a0Department of Managed Health Care, Mary Watanabe, listed reasons for denying the plaintiffs\u2019 exemptions based on the equal protection clause, which says no government can deny a group of people\u2019s equal rights and protection under its laws. She also argued that they can only accommodate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-religious-exemption\">religious exemption<\/a> requests from a health care plan, instead of an employer, according to the court order.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999paragraph\"><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999normaltextrun\">According to the state, the policy also prevents \u201ca flood of exemption requests\u201d from over 26 million employers who might disagree with the covered-care services provided by their plan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999paragraph\"><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999normaltextrun\">However, the court ruled, \u201cNone of these interests are sufficiently compelling, nor is the department\u2019s rigid approach narrowly tailored.\u201d<\/span><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999eop\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999paragraph\"><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999normaltextrun\">The state department is considering its next steps following the court ruling and had no further comment at this point, according to its spokesperson.<\/span><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999eop\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999normaltextrun\">Calvary Chapel Chino Hills staff were happy that U.S. District Court Chief Judge Kimberly Mueller ruled in favor of the churches, arguing the state\u2019s mandate violated their First Amendment rights.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999eop\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999paragraph\"><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999normaltextrun\">\u201cDespite the unreasonable mandate, it never changed what Calvary Chapel Chino Hills has always done, and will always do, be a defender of the unborn child who is constantly under assault by the State of California,\u201d\u00a0Staff member Gina Gleason from Calvary Chapel Chino Hills told The Epoch Times.<\/span><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999eop\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999paragraph\"><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999normaltextrun\">Since the court order, the churches and the state have been instructed to file briefs on the scope of relief, which are due within 30 days.<\/span><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999eop\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999paragraph\"><span class=\"x_x_m-4766523116433971999normaltextrun\">Foothill Church and Shepherd of the Hills Church did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Mueller did not provide comments on the case.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-julianne-foster\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/default-user.png\" alt=\"Julianne Foster\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three churches in California are exercising their religious freedom\u2014a federal court ruled\u2014and no longer have to cover abortion services through health care plans for employees, as of Aug. 25.\u00a0\u00a0U.S. District<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"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-1633164","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\/1633164","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=1633164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1633164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1633164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1633164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1633164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}