The first lawsuit has been filed challenging the legislature’s enactment of the bill allowing companies to refuse to provide insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization and abortion if they have a religious objection.
Minutes after the House finished overriding Governor Nixon’s veto of the bill, the Greater Kansas City Coalition of Labor Union Women dropped the lawsuit in onto the Cole County court clerk’s desk a few blocks from the capitol.
The lawsuit says the bill violates the federal Affordable Care Act and five other state or federal laws. Lawyer E. E. Keenan calls the override “just another right wing assault on workers.”
The bill goes into effect in a month unless a judge blocks the effecive date. Governor Nixon says the state will defend the law now that it has been enacted over his veto—a veto the Senate sponsor, John Lamping of St. Louis, called “naive.” Nixon has called the override “unfortunate” and says the bill does not provide any more protection of religious rights than present state laws provide.