A conservative Catholic legal group is suing Illinois over a landmark state law enshrining a “fundamental right” to abortion care and requiring insurance companies to cover abortion and other reproductive health care.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in Chicago by the Thomas More Society, seeks to prevent the state from requiring insurers to cover abortion coverage by arguing that doing so violates the First Amendment and 14th Amendment rights of its plaintiffs.
It also argues that the state is in violation of the Comstock Act, which criminalizes mailing abortion-related materials, because it requires health insurers to cover providers who send abortion medication in the mail.
This federal provision, which hasn’t been widely enforced against abortion providers in decades, has been discussed among anti-abortion activists and conservative politicians as one way to crack down on abortion access.
The lawsuit also relies on the Coats-Snowe Amendment and the Weldon Amendment, which prevent states that receive federal funding from discriminating against health care entities because they don’t provide abortions.
It was filed on behalf of six organizations and six individuals against Gov. JB Pritzker, Illinois Department of Insurance Director Ann Gillespie and Attorney General Kwame Raoul.
“Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his administration are on an uncompromising campaign to transform the Land of Lincoln into the nation’s abortion capital,” Thomas More Society’s head of litigation Peter Breen said in a statement. “In doing so, they have shown little-to-no regard for the rights of those who believe that all human life is worth protecting.”
The plaintiffs involved in the lawsuit include three anti-abortion advocacy groups, a church, a private Christian school, a DuPage County machining business and six individuals.
The law at the center of the legal complaint, the Reproductive Health Act, passed in 2019 and was meant at the time as a protective measure ahead of the expected overturning of Roe v. Wade. It has been strengthened several times in the years since.
The legal complaint alleges the law forces Illinoisans “to choose between paying for other people’s elective abortions with their premiums or forgoing health insurance entirely.”
The lawsuit equated that to a choice of struggling to recruit staff by not offering insurance on principal or subjecting themselves to “charges of hypocrisy” by offering insurance that covers behaviors they condemn. They argue this prevents them from being able to engage in “expressive association” as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
The Thomas More Society previously but unsuccessfully challenged Illinois’ abortion insurance requirements in state court on behalf of the Illinois Baptist State Association. In 2020, it sued the state’s Department of Insurance and Pritzker in another attempt to prevent them from enforcing the Reproductive Health Act.
That lawsuit claimed the law violated the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which protects individuals’ right to freedom of religion, and the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act, which allows doctors and other practitioners to conscientiously refuse to provide medical treatments, including abortion.
Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Chris Perrin ruled in favor of the state in September of this year, noting that the claim in that case failed because the plaintiffs did not demonstrate that the Reproductive Health Act “imposes the type of coercive choice necessary to establish a substantial burden.”
State and federal law often rely on different legal standards, so whether a federal judge will reach the same conclusion is still untested. In the meantime, the Thomas More Society has filed an appeal in the state case.
At the time of the Sangamon County decision, Attorney General Kwame Raoul said it was “a win in a years-long fight that is by no means over.” On Wednesday, he said that remains true.
“And I remain steadfast in my commitment to protecting reproductive rights in the state of Illinois,” Raoul said in a statement.
Other abortion rights advocates reacted to the legal challenge with confidence that abortion access will prevail in the case.
Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, said the federal case was “a pathetic retread of a case that they lost.” Cassidy was the chief sponsor of the Reproductive Health Act and is a longtime champion of abortion protections at the Statehouse.
“Fundamentally, without appropriate access, a right isn’t a right,” Cassidy said. “So this is fundamental to ensuring that we truly have an accessible system here in Illinois. If it’s only available to those who can afford it, it’s not a right.”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
