Alliance Defending Freedom Website
CV NEWS FEED // A Seattle-based church resumed on Thursday its five-year legal battle to secure a religious exemption after a 2018 law mandated it provide employees insurance coverage for abortion services.
“Cedar Park Church celebrates and protects life from conception to natural death; it’s unconscionable for the state to force any church to pay for abortions,” Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Rory Gray stated in an August 14 press release, which announced the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit would hear arguments for Cedar Park Assembly of God of Kirkland v. Kreidler the following morning.
The proceedings come in the wake of an appeal filed by ADF attorneys on behalf of Cedar Park Church contesting a lower court ruling that despite its firmly held pro-life religious beliefs, the church must provide abortion services to its employees under Washington state law.
According to the release, the 9th Circuit had previously reversed the district court’s initial decision to dismiss the Church’s case, which had been filed after Washington Senate Bill 6219 passed into law in March 2018.
Cedar Park’s insurance carrier added surgical abortion and abortive contraception to the Church’s health plan in order to comply with the law after it was established, but indicated that it would remove the abortion coverage if the church obtained exemption.
“The law requires Cedar Park to provide coverage for abortion if the church also offers maternity care coverage to its employees,” ADF explained: “Violators face fines and criminal penalties, including imprisonment.”
The district court ruled against the Church again, but on merits, prompting ADF attorneys to appeal the case to the 9th Circuit.
“The abortion coverage mandate requires Cedar Park to act contrary to its religious beliefs and violates its constitutionally protected freedoms,” Gray continued:
The U.S. Supreme Court established that the government cannot compel religious organizations to act in violation of their sincerely held faith convictions. Cedar Park has fought to practice what it preaches long enough.
We are urging the 9th Circuit to end over five years of back-and-forth litigation and uphold the constitutional liberties of Washington churches, like Cedar Park.
