Oregon Right to Life Wins at Oregon District Court

The State of Oregon has been trying to force Oregon Right to Life to provide abortion services to its employees under the Beaver State’s 2017 HB 3391, called the Reproductive Health Equity Act. ORL sued (Oregon Right to Life v. O’Day), and Judge Mustafa Kasubhai was persuaded by their argument to a religious exemption.

You know you have a solid set of facts if you can convince Kasubhai of anything non-progressive. In this instance, it’s the obvious application of last year’s Supreme Court decision in Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor & Industries. Policymakers cannot narrow religious exemptions to purely religious organizations.

Eric Shierman lives in Salem and is the author of We were winning when I was there.