Federal court says pro life pregnancy centers should not have to hire pro choice employees

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – A federal court has ruled that the Evergreen Association of pro-life pregnancy centers in New York has legal standing to challenge a law that could force anti-abortion groups to hire people who hold views that are contrary to their mission, the Christian Post (CP) reports. The Evergreen Association runs a network of crisis pregnancy centers called the Expectant Mother Care (EMC Frontline).

On February 27, the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City reversed a lower court’s decision to dismiss a January 2020 suit filed by Evergreen to challenge New York’s anti-discrimination labor law, CP reports. According to the lawsuit, the law prevents organizations like pro-life pregnancy centers from choosing employees who are specifically anti-abortion.

The lower court had dismissed the case, deciding that New York labor legislation did not affect Evergreen’s right to advance its pro-life mission, CP reports.

Reversing the lower court’s decision, Circuit Judge Steven Menashi wrote that Evergreen’s views on “morality of abortion are its defining values” and that “forcing it to accept as members those who engage in or approve of that conduct would cause the group as it currently identifies itself to cease to exist,” CP reports. “Accordingly, the balancing of interests favors the expressive association that opposes the conduct the state would protect against discrimination,” Judge Menashi wrote.

In a statement to the Christian Post, Evergreen founder and CEO Christopher Slattery said: “We are thrilled that a Federal Court in New York affirmed what we knew from the beginning, the need to shield pregnancy resource centers from unconstitutional laws that try to thwart their mission.”

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