Obama administration still attempting to force pro-life organization to pay for abortion coverage
ADF attorney available for media interviews immediately following hearing
PHILADELPHIA – Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Matt Bowman will be available for media interviews immediately following his oral argument in federal court Thursday on behalf of a pro-life organization in its lawsuit against the Obama administration’s abortion-pill mandate.Real Alternatives provides life-affirming pregnancy and parenting support services throughout the nation. The non-profit group is challenging the mandate, which forces employers, regardless of their moral convictions, to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception under threat of heavy financial penalties through the IRS.
“Pro-life organizations should be free to operate according to the values they sincerely believe and practice,” said Bowman. “Real Alternatives was founded to provide real help and hope to pregnant women and to oppose the tragedy of abortion—the very thing the government is forcing the organization to provide through its health insurance plan. The government cannot selectively punish organizations that simply wish to abide by their deepest convictions.”
The non-religious organization’s sincere moral beliefs on abortion forbid it from furthering abortion through health insurance coverage it offers to its employees, including by hormonal birth-control items it believes can endanger early embryos. Real Alternatives claims that the government is acting irrationally by imposing its mandate on a pro-life organization and women who do not want it.
ADF attorneys representing Real Alternatives appealed to the 3rd Circuit after a district court ruled in favor of the Obama administration last year.
ADF attorneys and allied attorneys are also litigating numerous other lawsuits against the abortion-pill mandate, including a lawsuit filed by another pro-life organization, March for Life, which won its case in federal district court last year.
- Pronunciation guide: Bowman (BOH’-min)
Legal Documents
Related Resources
Resource page: ADF lawsuits challenging the abortion-pill mandate
ABOUT Matt Bowman
Matt Bowman serves as senior counsel and director of regulatory practice for Alliance Defending Freedom, where he leads the team focusing on the impact of administrative law on religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and family. From 2017 to 2020, Bowman was a senior executive service appointee in the Trump administration, serving the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as Deputy General Counsel, and then in the Office for Civil Rights. Prior to joining HHS, Bowman was an accomplished litigator at ADF for over ten years. Before joining ADF in 2006, Bowman served as a law clerk for Judges Samuel A. Alito, Jr., and Michael A. Chagares, at the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and for Judge John M. Roll at the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. Bowman earned his J.D. summa cum laude and was first in his class at Ave Maria School of Law in 2003. He is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia and Michigan and is admitted to practice at the U.S. Supreme Court and multiple federal appellate and district courts.