Diocese of Albany v. Harris
Case Snapshot
In 2017, New York state mandated that employers cover abortions in their employee health insurance plans. Following the order, a diverse coalition of religious groups that includes contemplative goat-herding Anglican nuns asked the New York state courts to protect them from this regulation that would force them to violate their deepest religious convictions about the sanctity of life. But the New York state courts refused. After asking the U.S. Supreme Court to protect the churches and ministries, the Justices asked the state courts to reconsider in light of Becket’s other landmark victory in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. The New York courts refused to follow the Supreme Court’s guidance and again upheld the abortion mandate. Represented by Becket and Jones Day, the religious groups are again asking the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and protect the right of their churches and ministries to teach and serve without being forced to fund abortions.
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Case Summary
Pushing the envelope beyond the contraceptive mandate
In 2011, the United States Department of Health and Human Services ordered employers to cover controversial contraceptives and abortifacients in their health care plans or face crippling fines. Immediately challenges were mounted by religious universities, Christian businesses and, most famously, by the Little Sisters of the Poor—an order of Catholic nuns who dedicate their lives to serving the elderly poor. Three times the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Little Sisters of the Poor, saying that if the government wanted to provide contraceptives and abortifacients, it could not force the nuns to help.
But in 2017, when the Little Sisters of the Poor were already two Supreme Court victories into their decade-long legal battle over the contraceptive mandate, the State of New York went a step further and required employers statewide to cover not just abortifacients, but even surgical abortions in their health plans.
New York initially planned to respect conscience rights by exempting employers with religious objections. But facing pressure from abortion activists, New York narrowed the exemption to protect only religious entities that primarily employ and serve people of their own faith. This discriminatory rule punishes the many religious groups and ministries that provide critical community services and employ or serve people regardless of their faith.
Standing up for the right to stand aside
A coalition of religious groups from a variety of denominations—including Roman Catholic dioceses, an order of goat-herding Anglican nuns, Baptist and Lutheran churches, and Catholic ministries—sued New York, arguing that the law forced them to violate their deeply held religious beliefs about the sanctity of life.
Among the religious groups challenging New York’s abortion mandate are a group of the Carmelite Sisters who run the Teresian Nursing Home for the elderly and dying; the First Bible Baptist Church, which serves the community through its youth ministry and a deaf ministry; the Sisterhood of St. Mary, an Anglican/Episcopal order of religious sisters who live a contemplative, monastic life; and subdivisions of Catholic Charities, which provide adoption and maternity services.
Each group is challenging New York’s abortion mandate because it believes that life begins at the moment of conception, and that to intentionally end the life of an unborn child is a grave moral sin. However, unless they receive protection in court, these orders, ministries, and churches will either have to violate their deepest religious convictions and provide abortions, or eliminate their employees’ health insurance altogether, which would subject them to crippling fines totaling millions of dollars per year.
Seeking relief from the High Court
On April 23, 2021, represented by Becket and Jones Day, the coalition of religious organizations asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its case. The Supreme Court granted the petition, vacated the bad rulings from the New York state courts, and told the state courts to reconsider the case in light of Becket’s other landmark victory in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia . The New York Court of Appeals reconsidered the case, and on May 21, 2024, the court failed to protect the religious groups and again upheld the abortion mandate. On September 17, 2024, the decision was appealed to the Supreme Court.
Just like the Supreme Court found that the government must find a way to provide contraception that doesn’t involve the Little Sisters of the Poor, so too must the court step in and protect these religious organizations from having to violate their deepest moral convictions by participating in abortions.
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Importance to Religious Liberty:
- Religious communities: Religious communities have the right to organize and operate according to their beliefs without the government discriminating among sincere religious.
- Individual freedom: Religious individuals and organizations are free to follow their faith in all aspects of their lives, including in the workplace and not just in houses of worship.