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.
keyboard spew alert
” women’s right to decide whether and when to have children”
I’ve always thought that women made that choice right before they spread their legs. What we’re talking about is a second choice.
Yeah but so what. They’ll just do what they want anyway.
This is a big F’n deal!! Yay!
I wonder how many people have already had their policies terminated because their existing plan didn’t provide for birth control (therefore substandard under previous Obamacare). If any, do they get to have their policies back?
I can’t find the case I’m thinking of, but I like her.
A real blessing would be if the government put contraceptives in all the malt liquor and urban water supplies. All bamaPhones should come with a dermal release contraceptive too. If future Americans all grew up with some ambition and work ethic this country could be great again.
God Blessed America!!!!
It would have to be summarily struck down.
IF the present court system actually followed the written law instead of what they personally feel is right.
Ohio Ping
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.
snip
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.
Keep destroying this piece of crap.
Cut it up, like a whale if you have to, in order to blast the entire damn thing all to hell.
It is, for better or worse, a multiple choice test.
Two of whcih should not be funded by me.
Amen...If that’s what it takes to kill this abortion of a bill, do it!
Thanks for the question.
It looks like the contraception regulation was created by Sebelius as a response to the preventative care mandate of the law.
So severability does not apply.
Damnit...
“Didn’t she also rule on a case in Bush vs Gore?”
No. She was not on the bench at that point. G W Bush nominated her to the DC Circuit.
HOORAY!!
Now let's see if this is upheld when it goes to the SC.
For now, though, hooray for Judge Janice Rogers Brown and whoever the other judge is!
First the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upholding (temporarily) the Texas Abortion law and now this.
I’ve almost forgotten what good news looks like.
Thanks Katieanna
I hear you, good news has been scarce lately.
This is big.
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