Supreme Court boosts religious employers' challenge to NY's abortion coverage rule
The high court directed a lower court to reconsider the religious employers' challenge to New York's requirement.
WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of religious employers opposed to New York's requirement that their health insurance cover medically necessary abortions.
The court on June 16 threw out a lower court's ruling that the regulation did not violate the rights of the employers to practice their religion and directed New York's top court to reconsider that decision in light of a related ruling the justices handed down in June.
That case involved Wisconsin’s denial of a tax exemption to the charitable arm of the Catholic Church. The Supreme Court backed the charity, ruling that Wisconsin favored some religious denominations over others when deciding which employers don’t have to pay the state’s unemployment tax
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany argued that it and other groups challenging New York’s law faced similar discrimination because the state’s exemptions are too narrow.
New York's mandate includes an exception for certain religious entities, such as those that seek to promote religious values and both employs and serves those who share the religious tenets of the organization.
The state said that provides a “denominationally neutral” accommodation for houses of worship and similar organizations while protecting employees’ need to access essential reproductive health care.
The policy was approved by state regulators in 2017 and codified into law by the Legislature in 2022.
The religious employers that challenged the requirement said a nursing home run by Catholic nuns and a retirement community affiliated with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany are among the employers that don’t qualify for an exemption.
“No one would reasonably say a law is generally applicable if it exempts a religious nursing home that serves only Lutherans but not one that serves indigent elderly of all faiths,” their lawyers told the Supreme Court.
This was the second time New York’s rule came before the high court.
In 2021, the majority directed the state courts to reconsider their decision in light of a ruling about a Catholic charity in Philadelphia that declined to screen same-sex couples as foster parents.
Although the Supreme Court’s requested do-over is another win for the religious groups, they had urged the court not to go that route again but to immediately rule in their favor.
Still, lawyers for the challengers were pleased with the decision.
"We are confident that New York will finally get the message and stop discriminating against religious objectors," attorney Noel J. Francisco said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the New York attorney general's office declined to comment.