California officials have agreed to pay $1.4 million in legal fees for churches that pushed back against a state mandate that abortions be covered in health insurance plans.
Attorneys with the nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) successfully resolved two lawsuits dating back to 2015 and 2016 involving four churches that objected to the abortion-coverage mandate, the nonprofit legal organization announced last week.
Foothill Church in Glendora, Calvary Chapel of Chino Hills in Chino and Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch sued in 2015 over the mandate from the Department of Managed Health Care. Mary Watanabe, director of the department, was named as a defendant.
The alliance also submitted formal complaints with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, alleging violation of religious conscience.
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The group's attorneys filed a second lawsuit in 2016 on behalf of Skyline Wesleyan Church near San Diego, which likewise challenged the mandate on constitutional grounds.
On Feb. 2, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California issued a permanent injunction on behalf of the three churches in the Foothill Church case, finding that the state abortion-coverage mandate was a violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
On May 9, California Attorney General Rob Bonta laid out an agreement between the churches and defendant Watanabe that will see the state department pay the plaintiffs $500,000 in attorney fees by June 30.
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On May 11, Judge Ruth Bermudez Montenegro of the U.S. District for the Southern District of California ruled in favor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in the second lawsuit and required the department to pay the plaintiff $900,000 in attorney fees by June 30.
"The government can’t force a church or any other religious employer to violate their faith and conscience by participating in funding abortion," ADF senior counsel Jeremiah Galus said in a statement.
"For years, California officials, in collaboration with Planned Parenthood, have unconstitutionally targeted faith-based organizations," he continued. "This is a significant victory for the churches we represent, the conscience rights of their members, and other religious organizations that shouldn’t be ordered by the government to violate some of their deepest faith convictions."
During the case, ADF attorneys found emails that showed that the department's mandate was issued in response to pressure from Planned Parenthood in California and the American Civil Liberties Union, the nonprofit noted.
