IMAGE: CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn
By Carol Zimmermann
WASHINGTON (CNS) — The Trump
administration Oct. 6 issued interim rules expanding the exemption to the
contraceptive mandate for religious employers, such as the Little Sisters of
the Poor, who object on moral grounds to covering contraceptive and
abortion-inducing drugs and devices in their employee health insurance.
The contraceptive mandate was
put in place by the Department of Health and Human Services under the
Affordable Care Act.
While providing an exemption for religious employers, the new rules maintain
the existing federal contraceptive mandate for most employers.
President Donald Trump had
pledged to lift the mandate burden placed on religious employers during a White House signing ceremony May 4 for an
executive order promoting free speech and religious liberty, but Catholic
leaders and the heads of a number of Catholic entities had criticized the
administration for a lack of action on that pledge in the months that followed.
From the outset, churches were
exempt from the mandate, but not religious employers. The Obama administration
had put in place a religious accommodation for nonprofit religious entities
such as church-run colleges and social service agencies morally opposed to
contraceptive coverage that required them to file a form or notify HHS that
they will not provide it. Many Catholic employers still objected to having to
fill out the form.
The HHS mandate has
undergone numerous legal challenges from religious organizations, including the
Little Sisters of the Poor and Priests for Life.
A combined lawsuit, Zubik v.
Burwell, made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the justices in May 2016
unanimously returned the case to the lower courts with instructions to
determine if contraceptive insurance coverage could be obtained by employees
through their insurance companies without directly involving religious
employers who object to paying for such coverage.
Senior
Health and Human Services officials who spoke to reporters Oct. 5 on the HHS
rule on the condition of anonymity said that the exemption to the contraceptive
mandate would apply to all the groups that had sued against it. Groups suing
the mandate all the way to the Supreme Court include the Little Sisters of the
Poor, the Archdiocese of Washington, the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Eternal Word
Television Network and some Catholic and other Christian universities.
In reaction immediately after
the 150-page interim ruling was issued, religious groups that had opposed the
mandate were pleased with the administration’s action.
Michael
Warsaw, EWTN chairman and CEO president, said the television network’s legal
team would be “carefully considering the exemptions announced today
and the impact this may have on our legal challenge to the mandate, but we are
optimistic that this news will prove to be a step toward victory for the
fundamental freedoms of many Americans.”
Mark Rienzi, senior counsel
at the Becket Fund, told reporters in a telephone news conference an hour after the
rule was released that it is a “common sense and balanced rule and a great
step forward for religious liberty.”
He said the rule
“carves out a narrow exemption” and keeps the contraceptive mandate
in place for those without moral or religious objections to it.
He noted that it does not
provide immediate relief for those groups who had challenged it, such as the
Little Sisters of the Poor, which Becket represents. They will “still need
relief in courts,” he said, but was confident now that it would happen.
“We’ve traveled a
long way,” he added, of the multiple challenges to the contraceptive
mandate in recent years, which he described as an “unnecessary culture war
fight.”
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Follow Zimmermann on Twitter: @carolmaczim.
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Julie Asher contributed to this story.
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