A leading anti-abortion group is suing state insurance regulators in a case that could hamper a landmark Oregon law requiring insurance companies to cover abortion and contraception.
The Reproductive Health Equity Act, passed in 2017, requires all private insurers in the state to cover reproductive health services, including contraceptives, at no cost to patients. All but one insurer, Providence Health Plan, must also cover abortion services.
The law allows insurers to offer plans that don’t cover abortion or contraception to religious employers, such as churches, that exist to inculcate religious values and primarily employ and serve people who share the employer’s religious beliefs. Oregon Right to Life doesn’t meet that definition of a religious employer, but it should be granted an exemption, according to its 32-page complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Eugene.
“As a pro-life advocate, ORTL seeks to have everything it says and does be consistent with its beliefs and pro-life message,” the complaint says. “This includes its employee health insurance coverage. ORTL believes that funding coverage of abortion sends a message contrary to its pro-life message.”
The lawsuit seeks a federal ruling ordering the state to make an exemption for Oregon Right to Life, requiring any insurance company that provides a health plan to the organisation to accommodate the organisation’s religious beliefs and not provide coverage for abortion or certain types of contraception. The lawsuit also seeks an injunction preventing the state from enforcing its mandate on any insurer, and such a ruling could open the door for other companies to block coverage of abortion and some contraceptives in health insurance plans.
The lawsuit names the Department of Consumer and Business Services and its director, Andrew Stolfi, as defendants. A department spokesman said the agency was reviewing the complaint with its lawyers at the Department of Justice.
Shawn Lindsay, a former Republican state representative who now serves on the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, is the Oregon-based attorney who filed the complaint on behalf of Oregon Right to Life. The conservative Indiana-based Bopp Law Firm is serving as legal counsel for Oregon Right to Life and is seeking court approval to join the case, even though its attorneys are not licensed to practice law in Oregon.
Oregon Right to Life specifically opposes four types of contraceptives: two “morning-after” pills, which act as a fail-safe to prevent a fertilised egg from implanting in the uterus, and two types of intrauterine devices, because the long-term internal contraceptive could prevent a fertilised egg from implanting if it’s inserted up to five days after intercourse. The organisation believes that life begins at the moment an egg is fertilised, so preventing that egg from implanting in the womb is the same as abortion, which it opposes.
This was the same objection at the heart of the 2014 US Supreme Court case Burwell v Hobby Lobby, a 5-4 decision by the court’s conservative majority that allowed companies with a small group of owners to deny contraceptive coverage if the owners objected to including contraceptives in their company’s insurance plans because of their religious beliefs. The Obama administration responded to this ruling by requiring insurance companies to provide contraceptive coverage directly to employees, bypassing their employer-based plan.
The complaint indicates that Oregon Right to Life wants to switch insurance companies. Its eight employees now receive company-sponsored health insurance through Providence Health Plan, the only insurer in the state that doesn’t cover abortion services except in cases of grave danger to the mother or if the fetus won’t survive. However, Providence does cover contraceptives, including those that Oregon Right to Life considers lethal to a fetus.
“(The Providence Health Plan) is not adequate because it covers abortifacient ‘contraceptives’ and abortion beyond imminent danger to the life of the mother,” the complaint states.
Oregon Right to Life also considers Providence Health Plan “not suitable” because Oregon Health & Science University isn’t in-network and because it has had steeper rate increases than other insurers, the complaint said. Employees also rejected other options, such as faith-based medical cost-sharing groups, because they want traditional health insurance.
