Chicago City Wire

Last week, lawyers with the Thomas More Society (TMS), a Chicago-based public interest firm, argued in federal court against the state mandating that all health insurance providers include abortion coverage in their plans.

TMS filed the lawsuit five years ago on behalf of the Illinois Baptist State Association five, and on August 26 made their arguments in the Fourth District of the Illinois Appellate Court.

TMS contends that the state broke a promise when it approved the expansive Reproductive Health Act—signed by Gov. JB Pritzker in 2019—that no individual or organization would be forced to provide abortion coverage in their health plans.

“From the outset, lawmakers assured us that this legislation would respect the rights of people of faith,” said Peter Breen, Executive Vice President and Head of Litigation at Thomas More Society and former Illinois House Republican Floor Leader. “However, these assurances have proven to be nothing more than empty promises, reflecting a stark reality of broken trust and deceit.”

“Mandating that faith-based employers fund elective abortions is a blatant violation of our clients' fundamental rights and a profound betrayal of the trust of Illinoisans,” Breen continued. “We look forward to ending this unlawful mandate and protecting religious freedoms against the extreme abortion agenda of JB Pritzker and the General Assembly majority.”

Currently, the only health insurance plan available in Illinois without mandated abortion coverage is offered by an out-of-state provider. That option is cost-prohibitive, unreliable, and insufficient to meet the needs of Illinois Baptist State Association’s employees and their families, TMS said.

Matt Belz, Special Counsel at TMS, argued the case in court.

“Our clients are not asking for special treatment, they are asking for the freedom to live and work consistent with their faith,” Belz said in an email. “The State of Illinois should not be in the business of coercing people of faith into paying for abortion, in violation of their deepest moral convictions. The Illinois Religious Freedom Restoration Act protects Illinois Baptist State Association’s sincerely held and undisputed religious beliefs. We urge the Appellate Court to recognize the constitutional harms in this case and strike down this anti-religious nonsense from state law.”

Abortion coverage was mandated in the original Affordable Care Act in 2010. In 2017, the Trump administration exempted religious groups from the mandate.

Some states, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania, began their own lawsuits against religious groups, like Little Sisters of the Poor, for not covering abortion in their health care plans.

On August 13, Judge Wendy Beetlestone, chief judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, found that the Trump administration’s expansion of religious exemptions from the contraception mandate was “arbitrary and capricious.”

“Religious nonprofit groups and businesses will again have to ask for special accommodations from the Department of Health and Human Services to avoid buying abortifacients,” conservative columnist Dave Harsanyi wrote.

“Even if the Trump administration grants every one of them, one day there will be authoritarians in charge who won’t — and nonprofit employees will still be guaranteed contraception through health plans paid for by employers.”