Tyndale House Publishers v. Burwell

Summary

Tyndale House Publishers is one of the largest publishers of Bibles, Christian books, and other Christian media in the world. As you might expect, Tyndale is also a strong pro-life advocate and has never paid for abortions or abortion-inducing drugs and procedures as part of its employee insurance plan. But despite its unquestionable religious roots, Tyndale, like many other businesses in America, was required to offer insurance coverage for early abortion-inducing items under a mandate issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The mandate forced Tyndale to choose between providing the objectionable items or paying heavy fines and penalties that could bring any business to its knees. Represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, Tyndale filed a lawsuit challenging the abortion pill mandate.

The district court rejected the government’s argument that Tyndale isn’t religious enough to qualify for an exemption to the mandate, instead finding “no reason to doubt … that Tyndale’s religious objection to providing insurance coverage for certain contraceptives reflects the beliefs of Tyndale’s owners.” The district court halted enforcement of the mandate against Tyndale, and, in May 2013, the government abandoned its appeal of the ruling.

Alliance Defending Freedom is still fighting for companies like Tyndale who object to being forced to pay for abortion-inducing drugs. The U.S. Supreme Court accepted one of these cases, and Alliance Defending Freedom will be there to advocate on behalf of every Christian business owner who simply wants the freedom to operate their business according to their faith.

What’s at stake

The freedom to live according to your faith and to honor God in your work

The freedom from the threat of crippling fines for resisting illegal government mandates

The freedom from government intrusion on a religious business’ private moral decisions

The free and full participation of people of faith in all areas of public life, including the marketplace

Our role in this case

Alliance Defending Freedom represents Tyndale House Publishers, and is defending its freedom to operate its Bible-publishing business according to its deeply held religious beliefs.