Right To Life Employment Law Suit Deadline Extended

Right to Life, along with the Pregnancy Resource Center in Grand Rapids, filed a lawsuit against Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, and members of the Civil Rights Commission.  The plaintiffs claim that Michigan employment law "forces religious and pro-life groups to employ and associate with persons who do not share or live by – and may even oppose – the organizations’ beliefs on human life.”

This lawsuit, Case 1:26-cv-00390, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan on February 6th.  The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker in Grand Rapids.  An update from Michigan Advance:

https://michiganadvance.com/briefs/deadline-to-respond-extended-in-right-to-life-of-michigan-lawsuit-challenging-state-employment-law/

Deadline to respond extended in Right to Life of Michigan lawsuit challenging state employment law
By Katherine Dailey - March 11, 2026

A lawsuit filed by Right to Life of Michigan and the Pregnancy Resource Center in Grand Rapids against Attorney General Dana Nessel, along with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights and members of the Civil Rights Commission, continues to develop in court as the deadline for Nessel and the other defendants to respond has been extended to the end of March.

The lawsuit, which alleges that Michigan’s employment law violates the First Amendment protections of the two plaintiff organizations by requiring them to recruit and hire candidates with beliefs on abortion that do not align with the groups, as well as requiring them to cover abortion care in employee pregnancy benefits plans, was filed on Feb. 6 in federal district court.

Right to Life of Michigan and the Pregnancy Resource Center, or PRC, argue that, by continuing to require that their employees agree with their respective anti-abortion messages, they are currently in violation of Michigan’s employment law, putting them at risk of losing licenses or paying fines that they should not be at risk for.

“The First Amendment protects Right to Life’s and PRC’s First Amendment freedoms to join with others to further a common cause and to refrain from participating in activities that contradict their beliefs. Michigan’s law infringes on these bedrock freedoms,” the court filing reads.

The groups filed for a preliminary injunction to prevent any enforcement of those employment laws against the two groups “from adopting and following a policy, pattern, or practice of only recruiting, hiring, employing, and retaining employees who agree with, abide by, and live consistent with its position on abortion,” according to the motion.

The defendants had initially faced a March 4 deadline to respond to the complaint. However, on Feb. 26, Judge Robert J. Jonker, who is handling the case in the Western District of Michigan, granted an order to extend that deadline until March 27. The plaintiffs will then have another four weeks to respond themselves.

This is not the only lawsuit filed by Right to Life of Michigan against the current administration — the group is currently appealing the decision from a judge to dismiss a suit filed in 2023 seeking to overturn the state’s Proposal 3, a ballot initiative in 2022 that enshrined reproductive freedoms, including the right to an abortion, in the Michigan Constitution.