BUTTE, Mont. — A former Montana Catholic school teacher who was fired for being pregnant and unmarried has sued the school district.
Shaela Evenson filed the lawsuit in US District Court in Butte on Thursday, alleging that her firing violated federal and state laws that prohibit discrimination based on pregnancy, The Montana Standard reported. She is seeking back pay, benefits, and compensatory and punitive damages.
Evenson taught literature and physical education at Butte Central Catholic Schools for nine years. She was fired in January after the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena received a letter about her pregnancy.
School officials referred all questions to the diocese, and diocesan spokesman Dan Bartleson declined to comment Friday. The diocese filed for bankruptcy protection in January, and the diocese wants to see how the Bankruptcy Court decides the claim should be handled, he said.
Evenson was fired for violating the terms of her contract, which required her to practice the tenets of the Catholic faith, said Patrick Haggarty, the then-superintendent of schools for the diocese.
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Related: Early Class at Gordon College
"Obama sets new rules for contraceptives" by Josh Lederman | Associated Press August 23, 2014
WASHINGTON — Seeking to quell a politically charged controversy, the Obama administration announced new measures Friday to allow religious nonprofits and some companies to opt out of paying for birth control for female employees while still ensuring those employees have access to contraception.
Even so, the accommodations may not satisfy religious groups who oppose any system that makes them complicit in providing coverage they believe is immoral.
Effective immediately, the United States will start allowing faith-affiliated charities, colleges, and hospitals to notify the government — rather than their insurers — that they object to birth control on religious grounds.
A previous accommodation offered by the Obama administration allowed those nonprofits to opt out of paying for birth control by submitting a document called Form 700 to their insurers, but Roman Catholic bishops and other religious plaintiffs argued just submitting that form was like signing a permission slip to engage in evil.
In a related move, the administration announced plans to allow for-profit corporations like Hobby Lobby Inc. to start using Form 700.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that the government can’t force companies like Hobby Lobby Inc. to pay for birth control, sending the administration scrambling for a way to ensure their employees can still get birth control one way or another at no added cost.
The dual decisions mark the Obama administration’s latest effort to address a long-running conflict that has pitted the White House against churches and other religious groups.
The dispute has sparked dozens of legal challenges, fueling an election-year debate about whether religious liberty should trump a woman’s access to health care options.
Yet the latest proposals will probably run up against the same objections, because they still enable employees to receive contraception through their health plans — one of a range of preventive services required under President Obama’s health care law....
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