Mon May 15, 2023 – 5:36 pm EDT
(LifeSiteNews) — Two federal courts have ruled against the California government over its efforts to force churches to subsidize elective abortions, with state officials agreeing to pay the religious institutions $1.4 million in legal fees.
Since 2014, several churches have been resisting California administrative actions forcing all employers to cover elective abortions as “basic health care” in health insurance plans, regardless of religious or moral objections. The Trump administration threatened to withhold federal funding to California for infringing on religious freedom, but California under then-state Attorney General Xavier Becerra (now U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services) persisted, and the legal battle continued for years.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has been representing four churches (Skyline Wesleyan Church in the San Diego area, Foothill Church in Glendora, Calvary Chapel Chino Hills in Chino, and Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch) in two separate lawsuits on the subject. They contend that the California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) imposed the new mandate without passing new laws or regulations or so much as public input.
One suit received a successful verdict against the state last August, and on
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