ADF scorecard shows ongoing downward spiral of Obama abortion-pill mandate
Overall score shows mandate losing 72-16
Attorney sound bite: Matt Bowman
WASHINGTON – The Alliance Defending Freedom scorecard that has been tracking the potential demise of the Obama administration’s abortion-pill mandate in the courts now shows the mandate losing by an overall score of 72 to 16.The mandate forces employers, regardless of their religious or moral convictions, to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception under threat of heavy penalties by the Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies if the mandate’s requirements aren’t met.
“No one should support a government mandate that forces people to choose between their conscience and their careers,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “Just as the Supreme Court rejected the mandate in the case of family businesses like Conestoga Wood Specialties and Hobby Lobby, it should reject the administration’s attempt to foist it on non-profit groups like faith-based charities, Christian colleges and universities, and pro-life advocacy organizations.”
The U.S. Supreme Court will soon have the opportunity to consider one of those non-profit cases, such as the ADF lawsuit Southern Nazarene University v. Burwell.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
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.