CV NEWS FEED// The Diocese of Albany, NY is appealing the New York appeal court’s decision to force churches and religious institutions to pay for abortions in their health insurance policies.
The Epoch Times reports that part of the diocese’s legal team, Lori Windham of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, confirmed in an online press conference that the plaintiff is preparing a petition for review by the United States Supreme Court.
The defendant is Adrienne A. Harris, Superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services. The Department of Financial Services issued the regulations requiring religious institutions to provide coverage for abortion.
Windham explained the mandate’s limited exceptions for religious institutions, saying,
If you primarily serve people of your own faith, then you can have an exception, but if you open your doors to all … [to] care for anyone regardless of your faith, if you’re out there offering a cup of soup to anyone who’s hungry, regardless of what their faith background is, then you lose your religious freedom protections, you lose your exemption under the statute, and you must also pay for abortions.
Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany v. Harris has been in the judicial system since 2017, when the Department of Financial services first issued the mandate and several Roman Catholic dioceses, as well as Lutheran and Baptist churches and a group of Anglican nuns, sued in response.
In 2020, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York ruled in favor of the state, but in 2021, the United States Supreme Court ordered New York to revisit the case in light of the Supreme Court ruling Fulton v. Philadelphia, which ruled that a Catholic charity involved in foster care could, in accord with the First Amendment, refuse to place a child with a same-sex couple.
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York reviewed Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany v. Harris in 2022, and again ruled in favor of the state, and the New York Court of Appeals affirmed this ruling in 2024.
The deadline for the petition for review by the Supreme Court is September 18, 2024.
