Our Lady’s Inn v. The City of St. Louis

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri ruled in October 2018 that St. Louis Ordinance 70459 was discriminatory and unconstitutional. Filed on May 22, 2017, by Thomas More Society attorneys on behalf of Our Lady’s Inn (a maternity home for pregnant women), the Archdiocesan Elementary Schools of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, O’Brien Industrial Holdings, LLC, and owner Frank Robert O’Brien, the lawsuit challenged the ordinance’s expansion of protected class status to include “reproductive health decisions”—encompassing abortion advocacy or support.

The ordinance compelled pro-life entities to hire abortion proponents, rent property to abortion providers, and include abortion coverage in employee health plans, violating their missions. Plaintiffs alleged breaches of the First Amendment (free speech, expressive association, religion clauses), Fourteenth Amendment (due process, equal protection), and Missouri laws, including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (Mo. Rev. Stat. 1.302), insurance mandates (Mo. Rev. Stat. 191.724, 376.805), and support for maternity homes (Mo. Rev. Stat. 188.325, 135.600).

Judge Audrey Fleissig found that the ordinance violated First Amendment rights by forcing Our Lady’s Inn and the schools to associate with abortion advocates, hindering their pro-life advocacy, and infringed O’Brien’s religious exercise under Missouri RFRA. The City of St. Louis did not appeal, and Missouri’s legislature later enacting protections for similar organizations via Senate Bill 5.