Oregon — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled on October 31 that Oregon Right to Life (ORTL) may continue its constitutional challenge to Oregon’s Reproductive Health Equity Act (RHEA), a 2017 law requiring most employers to include abortion and contraceptive coverage in their employee health plans.
In a 2–1 decision authored by Judge Lawrence VanDyke, the panel reversed the district court’s dismissal of the case and vacated its denial of a preliminary injunction, sending the matter back for further proceedings. The court found that ORTL’s opposition to abortion “is genuinely religious” and that the lower court erred in doubting the sincerity of those beliefs.
“ORTL put forth significant evidence of its religiosity, and there was no conflicting evidence against ORTL’s claim that its views are religiously grounded,” VanDyke wrote. “The district court therefore erred by failing to conclude at the motion to dismiss stage that ORTL actually holds the beliefs professed in the complaint.”
The panel directed the district court to reconsider the case in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2025 decision in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission, which emphasized that laws granting religious exemptions to some faith-based organizations but not others may violate the First Amendment.
Judge VanDyke’s opinion emphasized that “ORTL is a religiously motivated organization, governed by a board whose members have sincere religious beliefs,” and held that “the purposes of the corporation shall be carried out by means consistent with traditional Judeo-Christian ethics.”
In a separate concurrence, VanDyke argued that Catholic Charities leaves little doubt that Oregon’s law “is subject to strict scrutiny because it discriminates based on theological choices and discriminates between religions.” He wrote that he would have ordered the district court to issue a preliminary injunction immediately.
Judge Mary M. Schroeder dissented, maintaining that ORTL’s claims should remain dismissed. “The majority appears to suggest that ORTL may have been wrongfully denied an exemption as a religious employer,” she wrote. “Yet ORTL never asked to be considered a religious employer; the state of Oregon has never been asked to determine whether ORTL is a religious employer; and the record demonstrates that ORTL does not consider itself to be a religious organization.”
ORTL is represented by James Bopp Jr. of The Bopp Law Firm in Terre Haute, Indiana. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield’s office defended the law.
The case is Oregon Right to Life v. Stolfi, No. 24-6650, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
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