ADF: DC gov't shouldn't force pro-life employers to pay for elective abortions

WHO: ADF Senior Counsel Casey Mattox
WHAT: Available for media interviews following vote on Bill 20-790, the Reproductive Health
Non-Discrimination Amendment Act
WHEN: Tuesday, Dec. 2, following vote, which begins at 11 a.m. EST
WHERE: Council of the District of Columbia, John A. Wilson Building, Room 500,1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.,Washington

WASHINGTON – Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Casey Mattox will be available for media interviews immediately following the Council of the District of Columbia’s vote on the proposed Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act. The bill prohibits employers from “discriminating” against employees for any “reproductive health” decision, including elective abortions, and would force employers to provide health insurance for elective abortions regardless of the employers’ beliefs or convictions. 

 

“This bill is an egregious attack on pro-life conscience,” said ADF Senior Counsel Casey Mattox. “The government has no business forcing pro-life organizations to pay for elective abortions. We hope the council will vote to defeat this hopelessly illegal bill rather than waste DC taxpayer dollars defending this doomed law to appease the abortion lobby.”

 

In October, ADF and six other pro-life organizations sent the council a letter explaining that the proposed bill is unconstitutional and violates federal law, particularly in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Burwell and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores.

 

The letter explains that “the Supreme Court has held that the federal mandate on for-profit religious employers, requiring them to provide coverage of items to which they have a religious objection, violates RFRA…. Particularly in light of the Hobby Lobby decision, there is no prospect that this law would pass muster under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”

 

In addition to ADF, the signers of the letter include March for Life, Susan B. Anthony List, Charlotte Lozier Institute, Concerned Women for America, National Right to Life Committee, and Family Research Council.