The court case, which will consolidate multiple lawsuits that have appealed to the Supreme Court, will be the second time the justices will address the issue of employers who have religious objections to paying for insurance coverage that provides contraception.
Advertisement
Joined by other religiously affiliated groups, the nuns say even under the accommodation, they must still take steps to ensure that the employees covered by their insurance plans get contraceptive coverage.
After the initial outcry that the rules violated the religious freedom of employers who conscientiously objected to providing such coverage, the administration announced revised guidelines in the form of a religious “accommodation”. A decision would likely come in June of next year, right in the middle of the presidential campaign.
Seven of the nation’s appeals courts have interpreted that Supreme Court decision to mean that the administration’s accommodation was enough.
“This case could undermine one of the greatest advancements for women’s health in a generation, by sanctioning discrimination over a family-planning service used by over 99 percent of women at a few point in their lives”, said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
It concluded that the government’s suggested accommodation violated the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and that the United States government had other ways to provide cost-free contraceptives to workers that would not involve religious nonprofit groups in something they consider immoral.
In an affidavit filed at an earlier stage, Michael Friel, the principal of Mary of Nazareth elementary school, said the school does not meet the federal definition of a “religious employer” and thus is not exempt from the contraceptive mandate.
The Obama administration says the way the system works relieves the organizations of the duty to provide contraceptives and is the least restrictive way of accomplishing the law’s requirement to provide preventive health care for women.
“Employers are no more entitled to interfere with access to insurance coverage for birth control than they are able to dictate how employees can spend their paychecks or what they can do on their days off”.
Under the government’s workaround, Little Sisters of the Poor and other related groups notify their insurance plans of their religious objections, shifting the obligation to offer contraceptive coverage from the nuns to the managers of the plan.
Among the plaintiffs are the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Archdiocese of Washington, Priests for Life, Southern Nazarene University and Texas Baptist University and several Pennsylvania Catholic institutions. The court said in a letter to the lawyers in the case that it expected the arguments to be in its March session.
The case was then kicked up to the Supreme Court, which will have the final word on the issue.
Only the appeals court in St. Louis ruled for the groups, saying they probably have a right to refuse to comply with the administration rules. The Court has not yet acted on that case (Sissel v. Health and Human Services Department).
Advertisement
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the administration is confident “that the policy that we have in place appropriately balances the need for millions of Americans to have access to birth control while also protecting the right of religious freedom that is protected in our Constitution”.
