Appeals Court Upholds NY Abortion Coverage Requirement

In Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany v Vullo, (NY App.Div., July 2, 2020), a New York state appellate court rejected a challenge by several religious organizations and other plaintiffs to a New York administrative regulation  requiring health insurance policies in New York to provide coverage for medically necessary abortion services. The court held that the case was governed by a 2006 decision of New York's highest court rejecting a challenge to a state statutory requirement that health insurance policies which provide coverage for prescription drugs must include coverage for prescription contraceptives, saying in part:

The overriding reason for such rejection — equally applicable in the instant case — was that the WHWA set forth a neutral directive with respect to prescription medications to be uniformly applied without regard to religious belief or practice, except for those who qualified for a narrowly tailored religious exemption 

The court also rejected the argument that the Superintendent of Financial Services had exceeded his regulatory authority in promulgating the regulation.