Religious Group Wins Reprieve From Oregon Insurance Equity Law

Oregon Right to Life can have another chance to argue that it’s exempt from a state law that requires employers to provide employee health plans that pay for some abortion and contraceptive care.

The group’s opposition to the insurance equity provision was religiously based, even though the employer wasn’t affiliated with any religious practice or institution and didn’t have religious requirements for employees or members, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said Friday.

The lower court erred in concluding at the dismissal stage that the group actually holds the beliefs it professed, the appeals court said in ...