NY Court of Appeals hears arguments for ‘medically necessary’ abortion insurance lawsuit
Meghan Hendricks | Senior Staff Photographer
New York state's highest court heard arguments Tuesday afternoon in a lawsuit. It argues a state regulation, which requires health insurance policies to cover "medically necessary abortions," violates the First Amendment and imposes a "substantial burden on religious exercise."
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New York’s Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, heard arguments Tuesday afternoon in a lawsuit that challenges a state regulation requiring health insurance policies to cover “medically necessary” abortions.
The brief — filed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany along with other religious groups — argues that the “abortion mandate” violates the First Amendment, imposing a “substantial burden on religious exercise.” The case had previously been dismissed twice in a lower court, Courthouse News Service reported.
Short arguments made in court on Tuesday focused on whether the religious exemption gives officials too much flexibility to determine which organizations wouldn’t need to follow the requirement, according to the Associated Press.
The AP reported that state financial regulators under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo initially approved the abortion coverage requirement in 2017, and the New York state Legislature codified the rule into law in 2022.
If the Court of Appeals throws out the regulation, attorneys handling the case said the law could then be challenged by a similar argument, giving the case larger implications for abortion access in New York, according to AP.
The brief references a 2020 United States Supreme Court, Fulton v. Philadelphia, to support its argument. In its 2021 decision, the Supreme Court decided that the City of Philadelphia was not able to bar Catholic Social Services from placing children in foster homes “because of its policy of not licensing same-sex couples to be foster parents,” according to Oyez.
In May 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 1973 ruling guaranteeing the right to an abortion under the Constitution in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Since then, legislation for reproductive healthcare has been shifting in New York and across the country, with some states expanding access to abortion while others move to restrict it.
Published on April 16, 2024 at 11:11 pm
Contact Samantha: saolande@syr.edu
