These States Want the Trump Administration to Rescind Rules That Protect Pro-Life Organizations

March for Life is back in court.

The secular pro-life organization filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration in 2014 to stop enforcement of the Obamacare contraception mandate to provide employee insurance coverage for drugs and devices that induce abortion.

March for Life, whose mission is to save unborn lives, would have been forced to do what was contrary to its reason for existing. But a federal court issued a permanent injunction and barred the government from enforcing the law against the organization.

The Trump administration created a new division in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) called Conscience and Religious Freedom and the Religious Liberty Task Force in the U.S. Department of Justice to protect Americans’ religious freedom. HHS also issued a rule to protect Americans who have religious and moral objections to killing the unborn, whether with a curette, pill, or providing coverage for pills or devices.

But California and a few other states filed a lawsuit challenging the rule. March for Life asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to allow it to join the lawsuit, and the request was granted last month. The parties presented arguments last week. From Alliance Defending Freedom:

“The government shouldn’t be forcing anyone to provide life-destroying drugs and devices,” said Baylor. “HHS rightly freed organizations like March for Life and the Little Sisters of the Poor from the abortion-pill mandate. California and other states filed a lawsuit that resulted in a nationwide order that blocks those new rules. We are asking the 9th Circuit to lift that order so that pro-life organizations can pursue their missions consistent with their most foundational beliefs.”

Photo credit: BlackGenocide.com