Judge finalizes Oregon Right to Life’s victory over abortion, contraception insurance mandate
U.S. District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai issued a written order finalizing Oregon Right to Life’s win against the state’s abortion and contraception insurance mandate, ruling that Oregon cannot force the pro-life group to provide coverage for procedures and drugs it opposes on religious grounds.
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A federal judge handed Oregon Right to Life (ORTL) a victory in its long-running challenge to a 2017 state law requiring most private health insurance plans to cover abortion and contraception, issuing a written order July 1 that the mandate cannot be enforced against the pro-life nonprofit.
U.S. District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai ruled that Oregon’s Reproductive Health Equity Act (RHEA) cannot be applied to ORTL in a way that forced the Keizer, Oregon-based group to provide such coverage to its employees, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB). The ruling effectively allows ORTL to receive relief under the law’s religious-employer exemption.
ORTL “has one mission: to advocate for pro-life positions based on Judeo-Christian values,” Kasubhai wrote. “This singularly focused nonprofit, by operation of Oregon law, and in particular the religious exemption available to lawfully avoid compliance with this law, would force Plaintiff to purchase health insurance for its employees that would cover abortions and abortifacients — the very things the nonprofit exists to oppose on religious grounds.”
Kasubhai announced from the bench in April he would rule in ORTL’s favor after finding that applying RHEA to the pro-life organization would violate its First Amendment religious freedom rights, as Zeale News previously reported.
ORTL had sought a broader injunction that would have barred Oregon from enforcing RHEA against other employers with similar religious objections, but Kasubhai declined that request, saying narrower relief tailored to ORTL’s circumstances was more appropriate.
ORTL sued state insurance regulators in 2023 after Oregon denied the organization a religious exemption because it was not expressly affiliated with a religious denomination, according to court documents. A district court dismissed the case in 2024, but the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals revived it in October 2025, ruling that ORTL’s pro-life beliefs were sincerely held and religious in nature. The case then returned to district court.
Before the judge’s order was released, ORTL Executive Director Lois Anderson told OPB that she saw the case as a “philosophical issue of being able to live out your beliefs.”
She said, “The spirit and the main understanding of the First Amendment is that our religious beliefs are not inside of church walls.”
