Will court force March for Life to pay for abortion pill coverage?

WHO: ADF Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman
WHAT: Available for media interviews immediately following oral arguments in March for Life v. Burwell
WHEN: Thursday, Nov. 6, immediately following hearing, which begins at 2:30 p.m. EST
WHERE: U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, 333 Constitution Ave. NW, #4400, Courtroom 18, Washington

WASHINGTON – Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman will be available for media interviews immediately following his oral argument in federal court Wednesday on behalf of March for Life in its lawsuit against the Obama administration’s abortion-pill mandate. Bowman will argue in favor of March for Life’s request for a permanent injunction against the mandate.

March for Life, the pro-life organization that holds its well-known annual march in Washington, D.C., is challenging the mandate, which forces employers, regardless of their moral convictions, to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception under threat of heavy financial penalties through the IRS.

“Pro-life organizations must be free to operate according to the beliefs they espouse,” said Bowman. “March for Life was founded to oppose the tragedy of abortion – the very thing the government is forcing the organization to provide through its health insurance plan. The government cannot selectively punish organizations that wish to abide by their beliefs.”

March for Life is a non-profit pro-life organization founded in 1973 following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision legalizing abortion in Roe v. Wade. Every year in January, March for Life holds a peaceful march to the U.S. Supreme Court and Capitol Hill to mark the decision until it is overturned.

The organization’s sincere moral beliefs on abortion forbid it from furthering abortion through health insurance coverage it offers to its employees, including by hormonal birth-control items it believes can endanger early embryos. March for Life’s beliefs are based on morality and science, but not on religion as such. It claims that the government is acting irrationally by imposing its mandate on a pro-life organization and women who do not want it.

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys and allied attorneys are also litigating numerous other lawsuits against the abortion-pill mandate.

• Pronunciation guide: Bowman (BOH’-min)

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.

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