The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany on May 4 filed a lawsuit against New York challenging a state mandate requiring certain employers to provide insurance coverage that includes abortion care, Courthouse News Service reports.
According to Courthouse News Service, the state Department of Financial Services (DFS) on April 26 enacted a mandate that requires all individual and small group employers to provide health insurance for employees that covers abortion care.
Lawsuit details
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany and nine other Catholic churches, organizations and dioceses filed the lawsuit in Albany County Supreme Court. The lawsuit lists DFS, Independent Health Association, UnitedHealthCare of New York and five other insurers as defendants (Huffman, Courthouse News Service, 5/12).
According to the complaint, DFS is not authorized to institute the mandate. The lawsuit takes issue with the "model language" DFS provided insurers that requires employee health plans to cover "therapeutic" and "non-therapeutic" abortion care (Virtanen, AP/Sacramento Bee, 5/13). The lawsuit also claims that DFS listed abortion as a form of "medically necessary surgery," which employee health plans are obligated to cover.
The plaintiffs asked the court to block the mandate, claiming that it is a violation of their rights to "religious freedom and liberty of conscience," free speech and freedom of association (Courthouse News Service, 5/12).


