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U.S. Supreme Court orders review over religious challenge to New York abortion law
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ordered a lower court in New York to reevaluate whether some religious organizations should be excluded from a state mandate that requires employers to provide employee health care plans that include abortion coverage.
The ruling from the high court said the case, Diocese of Albany v. Harris, should be sent back to New York courts to be reviewed again in light of an earlier unanimous Wisconsin case related to the Catholic Church groups being denied state tax exemptions.
The justices pointed to the Wisconsin case because the New York case poses similar issues about states exempting religious employers and faith-based groups, The Associated Press reported.
The New York case stems from a 2017 state mandate that requires health insurance plans provided by employers to include abortion coverage for situations that include rape and incest. The state mandate includes a religious exemption for institutions, but not for religious-affiliated groups.
It was challenged by Catholic and Anglican nuns, Catholic dioceses, Christian churches and other faith organizations. They argued the religious exemption is so narrow that it violates the freedom of religion protected under the First Amendment.
The most recent order from the Supreme Court is the second time the case has reached the justices after being litigated for years.
After the state adopted the mandate in 2017, religious groups challenged it in state court. The appeals court upheld the regulation and the state refused to exempt religious organizations.
In 2021, the religious groups appealed the state's ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Justices asked New York to reconsider based on its ruling in another case involving religion, Fulton v. Philadelphia. State courts found the Fulton decision was inapplicable to the situation, prompting the groups to bring it to the Supreme Court again.
The religious liberty law firm Becket noted in a release that New York's exemption doesn't currently apply to some organizations, including the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm and the Teresian Nursing Home because they 'serve the elderly and dying regardless of religious affiliation.'
'New York wants to browbeat nuns into paying for abortions for the great crime of serving all those in need,' Becket Vice President and senior counsel Eric Baxter said in a statement.'
Following the Supreme Court's Monday order, the case is headed back to the New York Court of Appeals.
