Get a free copy of Parental Rights & Education when you subscribe to our newsletter!
The Catholic Diocese and a pro-life pregnancy center says that the law not only violates their religious liberty under the Constitution but will destroy their ability to effectively function.
The Catholic Diocese of Springfield and the Pregnancy Care Center of Rockford filed a lawsuit last week challenging the Illinois Human Rights Act after legislators added “reproductive health decisions” to the law, arguing that it bars employers from making hiring decisions or disciplining employees based on whether a woman obtains an abortion or fertility treatments such as IVF.
The law prohibits discrimination based on inclusion in a protected class.
The plaintiffs, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), argue that, as religious ministries, it is critically important that all employees are coreligionists, meaning that they share the ministries’ beliefs about the sanctity of life and the evil of abortion.
Yet under the law, they say they would have to hire employees who not only do not share their beliefs and adhere to the standards of behavior the ministries’ demand but who actively work against their mission.
They also point to provisions under the law banning employers from “unwelcome conduct” regarding a person’s “reproductive health decisions” or creating an “offensive working environment,” which is not limited to the physical location an employee is assigned to.
The ministries argue that they would regularly violate this provision as they passionately advocate for the sanctity of life and encourage women to choose to carry a child to term rather than abort them.
Employers are also required to offer benefits regardless of a person’s reproductive decisions. The ministries refuse to offer coverage for elective treatments or procedures that violate their religious beliefs, including contraceptives and abortion.
The suit also claims that despite specific requests for religious accommodation, the Illinois legislature and the Illinois Department of Human Rights (which is responsible for enforcing the law) have refused to grant those accommodations to the ministries.
The plaintiffs argue that the law violates their First Amendment rights to expressive association and the free exercise of religion. They also claim the law violates religious autonomy, the ministerial exception, and co-religionist doctrines handed down by the Supreme Court.
For example, in Our Lady of Guadalupe v. Morrissey-Berru, the Supreme Court ruled that the government could not interfere with a religious institution’s right to decide how it is run.
In that case, as well as preceding cases Kedroff v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral of Russian Orthodox Church in North America and Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Court ruled that the ministerial exception applied to religious schools that require teachers to be coreligionists and adhere to their religious beliefs.
The ministerial exception exempts some religious organizations from employment discrimination claims if the employee performs religious functions.
ADF Senior Counsel Mark Lippelmann argued,
“Illinois can’t force pro-life religious organizations to bend their knee to the state’s secular view of abortion. The Constitution protects the right of religious organizations to choose workers who will advance—rather than contradict—their religious beliefs. We urge the court to uphold these organizations’ fundamental right to serve their communities consistent with their faith.”
Bishop Thomas John Paprocki, who heads up the Catholic Diocese of Springfield, stated,
“Our employees represent the Diocese and are expected to uphold our standards of conduct to ensure they align with the doctrine and moral teaching of the Catholic Church. However, under the state law, we cannot hire or retain employees based on our deeply held religious beliefs on pro-life teachings without being subject to disciplinary action. We must have the freedom to follow and express our convictions without government interference.”
Numerous court decisions have recognized the rights of religious organizations to make employment decisions according to their beliefs. For example, a U.S. district court recently ruled that the Yakima Union Gospel Mission in Washington State had the right to only hire coreligionists.
In addition, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a Catholic high school has the right not to retain a homosexual teacher.
Courts have also found that religious employers can’t be forced to offer coverage for medical treatments that violate their religious beliefs, most famously in the Supreme Court cases of Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, or when a U.S. district judge ruled that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission couldn’t force members of Christian Employers Alliance to cover employees’ gender transitions.
Forcing a religious organization to hire those who don’t share its beliefs, express messages the organization opposes, or pay for things that violate its beliefs destroys a religious organization’s ability to function. And that’s the point.
There’s a reason only certain religious organizations were exempted from the law. Illinois is trying to impose pro-abortion beliefs by crushing pro-life ministries.
As the suit states, Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton said that by implementing the law, “Illinois is not just protecting a right; it is championing fundamental principles” regarding reproduction.
In recent years, Illinois has been fervently striving to shut down pro-life pregnancy centers and to guard abortion.
The state even passed a law that specifically targeted pro-life pregnancy centers to shut them down. That law was deemed unconstitutional and described as “stupid” and “painfully unconstitutional” by a U.S. district court judge, and in response, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul agreed to not enforce it.
That hasn’t stopped the state from trying to find other ways to end pro-life messaging and ministries, though.
Limiting religious exemptions to the point that they don’t cover pro-life pregnancy centers or a Catholic diocese isn’t a good faith effort to protect religious organizations.
Soon, a federal court is going to have to, once again, teach that lesson to Illinois state officials.
PHOTO: Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of the Catholic Diocese of Springfield, Illinois, at a pro-life rally with other pro-lifers CREDIT: Alliance Defending Freedom
If you like this article and other content that helps you apply a biblical worldview to today’s politics and culture, consider making a donation here.
Notifications
