By Michael Gryboski, Editor 
A federal appeals court has ruled that a church cannot sue Washington state over a law that requires most employers to have healthcare insurance plans that cover abortions.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 last Thursday against a lawsuit brought by Cedar Park Assembly of God of Kirkland against former Gov. Jay Inslee and Washington Insurance Commissioner Myron Kreidler over Washington’s Reproductive Parity Act.
Circuit Judge Susan Graber, a Clinton appointee, authored the majority opinion, writing that the church lacked the standing to sue because “Washington’s conscientious objection statute exempts employers like Plaintiff from the consequences of the” mandate.
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“Washington’s conscientious-objection statute and regulations operate to make Plaintiff’s desired no-abortion group health coverage possible,” wrote Graber.
“Nothing in the challenged law prevents any insurance company, including Kaiser, from offering Plaintiff a health plan that excludes direct coverage for abortion services.”
Graber concluded, “Washington’s statutes and implementing regulation enable insurance carriers to provide exactly the sort of coverage that Plaintiff requires.”
“Plaintiff contends, in the alternative, that an employer purchasing a no-abortion plan in Washington still ‘indirectly facilitates’ the provision of abortion services to its employees,” she continued.
“The general disapproval of the actions that others might decide to take does not create standing, even when some tenuous connection may exist between the disapproving plaintiff and the offense-causing action.”
Circuit Judge Consuelo M. Callahan, a George W. Bush appointee, authored a dissenting opinion, writing that “while Cedar Park can choose to not purchase abortion coverage for its ‘benefits package,’ it must still enter into a contract with an insurer for a ‘health plan’ that provides coverage of abortions.”
Callahan took issue with the majority’s claim that Cedar Park had two viable options for coverage that would have excluded the requirement to cover abortions.
“Cedar Park is not eligible for these two plans, and the church submitted a declaration attesting to the fact that it cannot procure a health plan excluding abortion coverage that is comparable to the one it received from Kaiser Permanente,” she added.
“The majority says that insurers can offer Cedar Park a health plan that excluding abortion coverage. But how? The majority doesn’t tell us, and its conclusion flies in the face of the plain language of the Parity Act.”
In March 2018, Inslee signed Senate Bill 6219. Also known as the Parity Act, the new law required employer healthcare plans that covered maternity care to include abortion coverage.
The church filed its complaint in federal court in March 2019, with Judge Benjamin Settle, a George W. Bush appointee, dismissing the lawsuit in May 2021.
In July 2021, a 9th Circuit panel consisting of three George W. Bush appointees revived Cedar Park’s lawsuit, issuing a unanimous decision that the church had “plausibly alleged that” the law forced the church’s health insurer to stop “offering a plan with abortion coverage restrictions.”
The panel sent the case back to the district court level, where Judge Benjamin Settle of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington ruled against the church in July 2023, concluding that the law was “neutral” and “related to a legitimate governmental purpose.”
