Blog of Rights
Brigitte
Amiri

Brigitte Amiri is a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, where she has worked since 2005. She is currently leading the project’s efforts to combat abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. Amiri also led the project’s challenge to a ban on abortions in Michigan, and she successfully fought prohibitions on access to abortions in a Arizona county jail. Amiri was previously an attorney at South Brooklyn Legal Services in the Foreclosure Prevention Project and at the Center for Reproductive Rights.

10/01/2012
Contraception

A Victory for Women: Employer Can't Use Its Religion to Deny Birth Control Coverage for Its Employees

By Brigitte Amiri, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project & Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Anthony Rothert, Legal Director, ACLU of Eastern Missouri at 2:32pm

On Friday, a district court in Missouri rejected a case brought by a mining company challenging the federal birth control rule that requires employer health plans to cover contraception without a co-pay.  The Missouri case is one of 30 pending, and it is the first case to be dismissed on the merits.  It’s a tremendous victory for women, particularly those employed by the mining company. 

Read More»
03/01/2010

We'll be Watching You, Sheriff Arpaio

By Brigitte Amiri, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project at 3:04pm

After six years of protracted litigation, women in Maricopa County Jail — you know, the one run by the infamous Sherriff Joe Arpaio — have finally (hopefully) secured their constitutional right to obtain an abortion. The case began in 2004 when a woman, referred to under the pseudonym Jane Doe, was in jail and sought an abortion. Jail officials denied her request, and told her that she had to go to court and have a judge order the jail to transport her for an abortion. She tried this route, but the court denied her request. That's when the ACLU filed a legal challenge on her behalf, both to ensure that she receive a safe, timely abortion and to strike down Arpaio's unconstitutional policy. We won. Arpaio appealed. And we won again. Arpaio appealed again, to the Arizona Supreme Court, which refused to review the decision. And Arpaio appealed again, this time to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case.

Read More»
01/04/2013
Birth Control Court Cases

The First Contraceptive Rule Case to Reach an Appeals Court on the Merits

By Brigitte Amiri, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project at 4:31pm

Yesterday the ACLU filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the first challenge to the federal contraceptive rule to reach an appeals court on the merits.  The federal contraceptive rule requires health plans to cover contraception without a co-pay, and despite the plethora of lawsuits, the rule is clearly constitutional.     

Read More»
08/03/2012
Birth Control Coverage

History Is On Our Side: Why the Federal Contraception Rule is Constitutional

By Brigitte Amiri, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project & Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Anthony Rothert, Legal Director, ACLU of Eastern Missouri at 5:26pm

History has a way of repeating itself. Almost five decades ago a court in South Carolina considered a claim that a restaurant owner could refuse to serve African-American customers because integration of the races was against his religious beliefs. The court rejected that claim, and courts went on to do the same when faced with other, similar claims that religion can be used to discriminate. 

Read More»
12/20/2012
Birth Control Court Cases

It Doesn’t Matter How Many Lawsuits Are Filed, the Contraception Rule Is Constitutional

By Brigitte Amiri, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project at 4:20pm

Sheer repetition of an incorrect argument does not make that argument correct.  This holds true for the lawsuits challenging the federal contraception rule, which ensures that millions of women will have access to contraception without a co-pay.  Those who are trying to eliminate the rule in the courts have now filed almost 45 lawsuits.  They can file 100 lawsuits, but it won’t change the legal analysis.  As we’ve said before, the contraception rule is constitutional.  For the last five decades, courts have held that rules designed to eradicate discrimination – like the contraception rule – cannot be trumped by a business owner’s religious beliefs.

Read More»
08/30/2012
Contraception

Religion Doesn’t Justify Discrimination: ACLU Files Brief in Third Contraception Rule Challenge

By Brigitte Amiri, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project & Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Michael J. Steinberg, Legal Director, ACLU of Michigan & Sarah Mehta, Staff Attorney, ACLU of Michigan at 12:33pm

Another private company – this one sells lawn and snow removal equipment in Michigan – is challenging the federal rule that requires employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception without a co-pay. As we’ve written before, these cases are meritless and harken back to a time that we should not repeat. For example, in 1966, the Piggie Park restaurant in South Carolina refused to serve African-Americans because integration was against the owners’ religious beliefs. The same argument was used to try to get around equal pay and labor protections. The courts did not allow religion to justify discrimination then, and they should not do so now.  

Read More»
01/06/2012

Another Pharmacy Refuses to Sell Emergency Contraception to a Man

By Brigitte Amiri, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project & Lisa Graybill, ACLU of Texas at 2:08pm

A CVS pharmacist in Texas demanded a man bring his wife to the store to purchase emergency contraception.

Read More»
03/24/2010
Using Religion to Discriminate

A Victorious Step Toward Ensuring Reproductive Health Care for Trafficking Victims

By Brigitte Amiri, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project at 11:27am

On Monday, a federal district court in Massachusetts ruled that an ACLU challenge to the government's use of taxpayer dollars to impose religious doctrine on victims of human trafficking may go forward. The decision is a victory for women's health and for the basic constitutional principle that federal dollars cannot be used to favor one religious perspective over all others.

Read More»
11/17/2010

Walgreens Continues Gender Discrimination at the Pharmacy

By Brigitte Amiri, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project & Lisa Graybill, ACLU of Texas at 3:14pm

Couples who work together to make healthy decisions about contraception should be supported. So why is it that local Walgreens in Texas have repeatedly refused to sell contraception to men, despite corporate headquarters policy and federal guidelines to the contrary?

That is exactly what happened to Adam Drake, who tried to purchase emergency contraception from a Walgreens in Houston. He was shocked when the pharmacy unequivocally denied him the product because he is a man. When he complained to the store manager, she stood by the pharmacist’s decision.

Read More»
07/01/2010

Religious Doctrine Can't Trump Patients' Lives and Health

By Brigitte Amiri, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project at 2:02pm

A Catholic-owned hospital in Arizona recently made national headlines for demoting a nun for approving an abortion for a pregnant mother of four to save her life. While most of us would like to think this was an isolated incident, based on the Catholic Church's response and other reports, it wasn't and it won't be. Today the ACLU asked the federal government to investigate and take action against these hospitals. Denying such care is not only unethical, it also violates federal law. Our government should ensure that emergency rooms that open their doors to the public provide all necessary emergency care, including abortion. No hospital, religiously affiliated or otherwise, has a right to impose its beliefs to deny anyone necessary emergency medical care.

Read More»
Statistics image