Right to Life of Michigan (RLM) and Pregnancy Resource Center (PRC) filed a lawsuit challenging a state employment law that requires them to hire pro-abortion employees.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed the suit on behalf of the pro-life organizations, explaining in a press release:
ADF, a legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, the sanctity of life and parents’ rights, added, “The law also requires these organizations to offer abortion coverage in their insurance plans in direct conflict with their very mission.”
ADF Senior Counsel Bryan Neihart stated:
According to the ADF press release:
Both hire like-minded individuals who share their convictions about the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death. They depend on their employees to promote their pro-life views to the public and to encourage other staff.
But state employment law now requires them to hire individuals who disagree with their work and their deeply-held pro-life beliefs.
Michigan enacted the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act in 1976, prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations, employment, housing and education on the basis of “religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status, or marital status.”
The act prohibited “sex-based discrimination due to pregnancy, childbirth, or a medical condition related to pregnancy,” but it specifically excluded “nontherapeutic abortions not intended to save the life of the mother.”
In 2022, Michigan voters passed Proposal 3, the “Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative,” a law enshrining abortion as a constitutional right.
To bring the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act in line with Proposal 3, the legislature passed Senate Bill 147, which deleted “nontherapeutic abortion not intended to save the life of the mother.”
That change meant that “sex discrimination” included anyone who had an abortion or supported abortion.
The legislature also approved Senate Bill 4, adding “sexual orientation and gender identity or expression” as categories protected from discrimination.
Amber Roseboom, president of Right to Life of Michigan, spoke in a press release about the challenge to the state’s employment law:
Our legal challenge aims to ensure that Right to Life of Michigan has the freedom to hire employees who share its vision without the threat of government punishment so that we can continue to advocate for life-affirming options now and into the future.
Among other allegations, the lawsuit states that Michigan’s employment law violates RLM and PRC’s First Amendment rights to expressive association and assembly; to freedom of speech and press; and to free exercise of religion and to religious autonomy.
The case is Right to Life of Michigan v. Nessel.
Related articles and resources:
Abortion Activists Try to Silence Students and Prayer Warriors
Become an Option Ultrasound Life Advocate
Dealing With Unplanned Pregnancy
Focus on the Family: Option Ultrasound
Michigan’s Prop 3 Goes Much Further Than Legalizing Abortion—It Targets Children and Families
National Pro-Life Summit: Equipping Students to Lead with Courage
New Insights on the Dangers of the Abortion Pill
Overcoming Abortion and Becoming a Force for Life
Planned Parenthood, ACLU, Teachers Unions and Dark Money Groups Spend Millions to Promote Abortion
Planned Parenthood Drops Suit After Trying to Force Taxpayers to Fund Abortions
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