In Washington State, it is not enough that women have nearly unlimited access to legal abortion. Last year, the state took things a step further, enacting S.B. 6219, which requires all health plans that cover maternity care to cover abortion procedures, too.
This is a problem for Jay and Sandy Smith, who lead Cedar Park Church in Kirkland, Wash., a Christian church in the Assemblies of God denomination. "We have a deeply held view, as informed by the Scriptures, that life is a gift from God," Jay tells National Review in an interview. "Any means by which we're asked to or compelled to or forced to participate in ending life, we see it as in opposition to the Scripture."
The Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit on behalf of Cedar Park Church this spring in federal court, challenging the statute as unconstitutional on religious-freedom grounds. S.B. 6219 doesn't grant any religious or conscience exemptions to the abortion-coverage requirement, although it offers 13 other types of exemptions.
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