Support Free Republic.
Please donate today!
Posted on 11/01/2013 10:25:55 AM PDT by jazusamo
A federal appeals court on Friday struck down the birth control mandate in ObamaCare, concluding the requirement trammels religious freedom.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals — the second most influential bench in the land behind the Supreme Court — ruled 2-1 in favor of business owners who are fighting the requirement that they provide their employees with health insurance that covers birth control.
Requiring companies to cover their employees’ contraception, the court ruled, is unduly burdensome for business owners who oppose birth control on religious grounds, even if they are not purchasing the contraception directly.
“The burden on religious exercise does not occur at the point of contraceptive purchase; instead, it occurs when a company’s owners fill the basket of goods and services that constitute a healthcare plan,” Judge Janice Rogers Brown wrote on behalf of the court.
Legal analysts expect the Supreme Court to ultimately pick up an appeal on the birth-control requirement and make a final decision on its constitutionality.
In the meantime, Republicans in Congress have pushed for a conscience clause that would allow employers to opt out of providing contraception coverage for moral or religious reasons.
The measure emerged most recently during negotiations to fund the federal government. Some House Republicans wanted to include the conscience clause in a legislative package ending the government shutdown.
The split ruling against the government on Friday was the latest in a string of court cases challenging the healthcare law’s mandate.
Friday’s ruling centered on two Catholic brothers, Francis and Philip Gilardi, who own a 400-person produce company based in Ohio.
The brothers oppose contraception as part of their religion and challenged the Affordable Care Act provision requiring them to provide insurance that covers their employees' birth control.
Refusing to abide by the letter of the law, they said, would result in a $14 million fine.
“They can either abide by the sacred tenets of their faith, pay a penalty of over $14 million, and cripple the companies they have spent a lifetime building, or they become complicit in a grave moral wrong,” Brown wrote.
The Obama administration said that the requirement is necessary to protect women’s right to decide whether and when to have children.
The judges were unconvinced, however, that forcing companies to cover contraception protected that right.
Brown wrote that “it is clear the government has failed to demonstrate how such a right — whether described as noninterference, privacy, or autonomy — can extend to the compelled subsidization of a woman’s procreative practices.”
She added that denying coverage of contraception would not undermine the Affordable Care Act’s requirements that health insurance provide preventative care.
The Gilardis’ employees will still be covered for a series of counseling, screenings and tests, she noted.
“The provision of these services — even without the contraceptive mandate — by and large fulfills the statutory command for insurers to provide gender-specific preventive care,” she wrote. “At the very least, the statutory scheme will not go to pieces.”
The two other judges on the panel disagreed with parts of the ruling and said the rights of religious people do not extend to the companies they own. They also disputed that the Gilardis were unduly burdened by the coverage requirement.
Churches and other houses of worship are exempt from the ObamaCare mandate to cover contraception. People who work for religiously affiliated institutions can get birth control directly from their insurance companies.
— This story was updated at 12:52 p.m.
Ain’t that the truth??
AND - if we lived in a country that was ruled by laws, and not men, since there is no severability clause, the whole damn miserable thing would be thrown out. But since the law, and the Constitution, are basically whatever benefits the Democrats at any given time, it will stay in place, no matter what.
Just a small question here. Will Obmacare and the companies writing it offer any health insurance that doesn’t cover Birth control?
I mean what good is it if you don’t have to buy it ,but it isn’t available, and you get fined if you don’t buy insurance.
Could be, nothing would surprise me
She should be. Her insurance just went up $3000 per month
:)
Silly Engineer... Don’t you know, emotion trumps logic! Just ask a lemming.
The religious freedom protection in the Constitution will over ride baby killing!!!
can’t disagree with the account of this ruling. well reasoned. however, at this point, America cannot be saved by her courts.
Sad we have to wonder, what will the Supreme Court rule? Guess we won’t know for years?
Fluke Sandra!
yes. Meanwhile as 20-something women are picking up their “free” pills - they are about to get hit with doubled premiums and tripled deductibles.
Liberal math.
If they are going to turn their bodies into amusement parks, open to the public, they should pay for the consequences themselves. Don’t try to squeeze it out of us.
Does this mean we have a prophylaxis against the condom tax?
A little late to the party here but I had no idea that journalism still had standards.
She had no involvement in Bush v. Gore - she was previously a member of the California Supreme Court before being appointed to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Bush v. Gore was heard in Florida Courts before heading to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The reason you are recognizing her name is due to the fact she was one of the nominees the Democrats were engaging in unprecedented judicial filibusters over.
Wait till the clintoid Ruth Bader Ginsburg gets ahold of this case.
GWB was really pitiful, but they say Gore was much worse. We’ll never know for sure.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.