CHICAGO (OSV News) — A Catholic diocese and an Illinois pregnancy center have turned to a federal appeals court in challenging an Illinois nondiscrimination law that they said would force them to hire workers who do not share their pro-life mission.
“We must have the freedom to follow and express our convictions without government interference,” Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield said in a statement announcing the appeal.
“Our employees represent the diocese and are expected to uphold our standards of conduct to ensure they align with the doctrine and moral teaching of the Catholic Church,” he said. “However, under the state law, we cannot hire or retain employees based on our deeply held religious beliefs on pro-life teachings without being subject to disciplinary action.”
7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal organization specializing in freedom of religion and free speech, on June 2 filed the opening briefwith the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals appealing a federal judge’s dismissal of the case March 31.
The Diocese of Springfield and the Pregnancy Care Center of Rockford had sought a preliminary injunction against the Illinois attorney general from enforcing the amended Illinois Human Rights Act against them.
Starting January 2025, the act incorporated “reproductive health decisions” among the existing categories of unlawful discrimination, such as race, color, religion, and more.
The act defines “reproductive health decisions” as “any decision by a person affecting the use or intended use of health care, goods, or services related to reproductive processes, functions, and systems, including, but not limited to, family planning, pregnancy testing, and contraception; fertility or sterilization care; miscarriage; continuation or termination of pregnancy; prenatal, intranatal, and postnatal care.”
Contradiction of Church teaching on respect for life
Several of these services such as abortion, contraception, sterilization and artificial means to attain pregnancy are in direct contradiction of the Catholic Church’s teaching on the life and dignity of the human person.
ADF filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Springfield Diocese and the Pregnancy Care Center of Rockford back in March 2025 claiming the law violates “their rights to expressive association, free exercise of religion, religious autonomy, free speech, and equal protection under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.”
In her order to dismiss the case, U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer said there had been no move to enforce the law against either the Springfield Diocese or the Rockford pregnancy center, and the harm they fear is “for now, hypothetical,” therefore their case had no legal standing.
But ADF noted in its brief the diocese’s standards of conduct on how employees are to uphold the teachings of the Catholic Church and that at the time of the filing, the diocese was screening for a “Respect Life Advocate,” a position which “required that the individual be a ‘(p)racticing Catholic in full communion with the teachings of the Church.'”
Abortion ‘never morally acceptable’ option
ADF said also the pregnancy care center’s hiring policy states that a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ is a requirement for any employee, as well as believing that abortion is never a morally acceptable option.”
The appeal argued that the threat of enforcement “constitutes an injury-in-fact,” giving them standing, and that the law places a direct burden on their First Amendment rights. It argued the law affects “the right to choose who carries their religious and pro-life messages; to speak freely about their convictions while remaining free from compelled speech; and to refuse to condone, encourage, facilitate, or participate in violations of their faith.”
Simone Orendain is an OSV News correspondent. She writes from Chicago.
