(OSV News) — A federal appeals court Jan. 2 revived a challenge to a New York state law that opponents alleged violates the hiring practices of churches and pro-life pregnancy centers.
The law broadly proscribes “discrimination based on an employee’s or a dependent’s reproductive health decision making.” It bars employers from accessing this personal information, from requiring employees to sign documents or waivers that deny “the right to make their own reproductive health care decisions,” and from taking any kind of retaliatory employment action in response to those reproductive health decisions.
Supporters of the provision of the New York employment law, sometimes called the “Boss Bill,” which prohibits workplace discrimination based on employees’ positions on abortion, argue it prohibits retaliation against employees who have had abortions.
But opponents, such as CompassCare, a network of faith-based pregnancy centers with limited medical services across New York, argue it infringes on their ability to hire employees who agree with their core mission.
Court documents noted that CompassCare “requires that all staff members ‘know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior … support CompassCare’s religious mission, … personally conduct themselves consistent(ly) with the Christian faith,’ and ‘believe in and agree to abide by its positional statements on abortion, birth control, religious faith, and organizational principles.'” It noted that CompassCare stated it “‘requires...
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