Oregon legislature passed the Reproductive Health Equity Act (RHEA), HB 3391, in 2017. The law requires every private insurer to cover reproductive health services, including contraceptives, at no cost to patients. All but one insurer, Providence Health Plan, must also cover abortion services.

The 2023 session passed HB 2002, among other controversial issues, it closed the gap to exclusions for health insurance from being required to pay for abortions. The way that exemption was originally written, it ended up being broader than it was intended, and HB 2002 closes that language to clarify that it only applies to insurance carriers, and not, for example, local and county government plans.

Oregon Right to Life (ORTL) found their organizational structure as a prolife-issue-advocacy, nonprofit, Oregon corporation, was left out of the exclusions. They have filed a lawsuit against Andrew R. Stolfi, as Director of the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services and Oregon Insurance Commissioner, seeking to be treated as the mandate treats “religious employers.”

The complaint reads, “Though ORTL objects on religious grounds to providing insurance coverage in its health-benefit plan for abortion (except to save the mother’s life) and “contraceptives” that act as abortifacients, it doesn’t fit the “religious employer” definition because (though it is nonprofit and its employees share its religious views) its purpose is prolife advocacy, not inculcating religious values, and it doesn’t primarily serve persons sharing its religious tenets.”

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Oregon law requires insurance companies to cover abortion and contraceptives: “The suit seeks a federal ruling ordering the state to make an exception for Oregon Right to Life, requiring any insurance company that provides a health plan to the organization to accommodate the organization’s religious beliefs... The complaint also asks for a ruling blocking the state from enforcing its mandate on any insurer, and such a ruling could clear the way for other companies to block coverage for abortion and some contraception on health insurance plans.”

To make their point, ORTL points to their mission to advocate for the most vulnerable human beings whose right to life is denied or abridged under current law. It works to reestablish protection for all innocent human life from conception to natural death. ORTL believes individual human life begins at conception, i.e., at fertilization (not implantation or any other time after fertilization). However, they take no position on birth control methods that prohibit the sperm and egg from uniting, but once united, a new human life begins and ORTL opposes any drug, device, or procedure which destroys the new human life.

The complaint includes 22 pages of supporting cases. The case is in the U.S. District Court in Eugene.


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2023-09-16 12:11:13

Last Update: 2023-09-16 12:07:26