The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit heard oral arguments in Cedar Park Assembly of God of Kirkland v. Kuderer, a case involving a Washington church seeking a religious exemption from a law requiring the church to provide abortion coverage to employees.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) defended Cedar Park Church in the Jan. 8 hearing, during which ADF Senior Counsel Rory Gray argued that the law violates the church’s free exercise of religion.
“The church’s religious belief is that it is facilitating abortion by covering it through the church’s plan. There is absolutely no argument otherwise that there would be no abortion coverage here but for Cedar Park seeking out an insurer, negotiating the terms and signing a contract,” Gray said during the hearing.
The Kirkland, Washington, church provided an abortion-free health plan for church employees, but in March 2018, Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee signed Senate Bill 6219 into law, which requires employers offering maternity care coverage to also provide abortion coverage. Violators face fines and criminal penalties such as imprisonment.
Surgical abortion coverage was added to the church’s insurance carrier health plan, in compliance with state law.
The church, which believes all human life is valuable and should be protected from conception to natural death, has been fighting for an exemption for six years. In 2019, the church filed suit against Washington state officials, asking for an exemption from the mandate.
The complaint argues that the law imposes a substantial burden on Cedar Park’s religious exercises while coercing the church to violate its religious beliefs, since denying mothers’ maternity care violates their religious beliefs, and there are no other insurance options they qualify for that do not require abortion coverage.
“SB 6219 imposes a burden on Cedar Park’s ability to recruit and retain employees and places Cedar Park at a competitive disadvantage by creating uncertainty as to whether it will be able to offer group health insurance in the future,” the complaint reads.
The case has been volleyed back and forth between courts. A district court dismissed the case. The 9th Circuit then reversed the lower court’s dismissal, with the district court responding by ruling that the church’s free-exercise rights had not been violated by the enforcement. In November 2023, Cedar Park Church appealed again to the 9th Circuit, with a three-judge panel siding with the state in March 2025 before withdrawing its opinion four months later and scheduling a rehearing.
During the Jan. 8 rehearing, Gray argued that the mandate not only violates the Free Exercise Clause but is also not neutral and not generally applicable, treating some secular institutions differently than churches on the issue of exemptions.
“It’s unconscionable for the government to force any church to pay for abortions,” said Gray said in a press release. “The U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed that the government can’t compel religious organizations to act in violation of their sincerely held faith convictions. Cedar Park, which celebrates and protects life from conception to natural death, has fought long enough to practice what it preaches, and we are urging the court to finally resolve the matter and rule in favor of religious freedom.”
