Court: Religious rights trump birth control rule
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| Demonstrators embrace as they react to hearing the Supreme Court's decision on the Hobby Lobby case outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Monday, June 30, 2014. The Supreme Court says corporations can hold religious objections that allow them to opt out of the new health law requirement that they cover contraceptives for women. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- A sharply divided Supreme Court ruled Monday that some companies
with religious objections can avoid the contraceptives requirement in
President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, the first time the high
court has declared that businesses can hold religious views under
federal law.
The justices' 5-4 decision,
splitting conservatives and liberals, means the Obama administration
must search for a different way of providing free contraception to women
who are covered under the health insurance plans of objecting
companies.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his
majority opinion, over a dissent from the four liberal justices, that
forcing companies to pay for methods of women's contraception to which
they object violates the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act. He said
the ruling is limited and there are ways for the administration to
ensure women get the birth control they want.
But
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the decision creates
health risks for women, and he said Congress should take action to make
sure they get coverage.
"President Obama
believes that women should make personal health care decisions for
themselves rather than their bosses deciding for them," Earnest said.
"Today's decision jeopardizes the health of the women who are employed
by these companies."
Contraception is among a
range of preventive services that must be provided at no extra charge
under the health care law that Obama signed in 2010. Nearly 30 million
women receive birth control as a result of the health law, the
government has said.
Benefits experts say they
expect little impact from the ruling because employers use health
benefits to recruit and retain workers. But one constitutional law
scholar, Marci Hamilton of Yeshiva University, cautioned that more than
80 percent of U.S. corporations are closely held and she said they could
"now be able to discriminate against their employees."
Two
years ago, Chief Justice John Roberts cast the pivotal Supreme Court
vote that saved the law in the midst of Obama's campaign for
re-election. On Monday, Roberts sided with the four justices who would
have struck down the law in its entirety, holding in favor of the
religious rights of closely held corporations, like the Oklahoma-based
Hobby Lobby chain of arts-and-craft stores that challenged the
contraceptives provision.
Hobby Lobby is among
roughly 50 businesses that have sued over covering contraceptives.
Some, like the two involved in the Supreme Court case, are willing to
cover most methods of contraception, as long as they can exclude drugs
or devices that the government says may work after an egg has been
fertilized.
But Monday's ruling would apply
more broadly to other companies that do not want to pay for any of the
20 birth control methods and devices that have been approved by federal
regulators.
Alito said the decision is limited
to contraceptives. "Our decision should not be understood to hold that
an insurance-coverage mandate must necessarily fall if it conflicts with
an employer's religious beliefs," he said.
He
suggested two ways the administration could deal with the birth control
issue. The government could simply pay for pregnancy prevention, he
said. Or it could provide the same kind of accommodation it has made
available to religious-oriented, not-for-profit corporations.
Those
groups can tell the government that providing the coverage violates
their religious beliefs. At that point, creating a buffer, their insurer
or a third-party administrator takes on the responsibility of paying
for the birth control. The employer does not have to arrange the
coverage or pay for it. Insurers get reimbursed by the government
through credits against fees owed under other provisions of the health
care law.
That accommodation is the subject of
separate legal challenges, and the court said Monday that
profit-seeking companies could not assert religious claims in such a
situation.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was
part of the majority, also wrote separately to say the administration
can solve its problem easily. "The accommodation works by requiring
insurance companies to cover, without cost sharing, contraception
coverage for female employees who wish it," Kennedy said. He said that
arrangement "does not impinge on the plaintiffs' religious beliefs."
Houses
of worship and other religious institutions whose primary purpose is to
spread the faith are exempt from the requirement to offer birth
control.
In a dissent she read aloud from the
bench, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the decision "potentially
sweeping" because it minimizes the government's interest in uniform
compliance with laws affecting the workplace. "And it discounts the
disadvantages religion-based opt-outs impose on others, in particular,
employees who do not share their employer's religious beliefs," Ginsburg
said.
Leaders of women's rights groups
blasted the decision by "five male justices," in the words of Cecile
Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
The
administration said a victory for the companies would prevent women who
work for them from making decisions about birth control based on what's
best for their health, not whether they can afford it. The government's
supporters pointed to research showing that nearly one-third of women
would change their contraceptive if cost were not an issue; a very
effective means of birth control, the intrauterine device, can cost up
to $1,000.
The contraceptives at issue before the court were the emergency contraceptives Plan B and ella, and two IUDs.
A
survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found 85 percent of large
American employers already had offered such coverage before the health
care law required it.
Most working women will
probably see no impact from the ruling, corporate health benefits
consultants expect. Publicly traded companies are unlikely to inject
religion into their employee benefit plans, said Mark Holloway, director
of compliance services at the Lockton Companies, an insurance broker
that serves medium-sized and growing employers.
"Most
employers view health insurance as a tool to attract and retain
employees," said Holloway. "Women employees want access to contraceptive
coverage, and most employers don't have a problem providing that
coverage. It is typically not a high-cost item."
It
is unclear how many women potentially are affected by the high court
ruling. Hobby Lobby is by far the largest employer of any company that
has gone to court to fight the birth control provision.
The
company has more than 15,000 full-time employees in more than 600
crafts stores in 41 states. Hobby Lobby is owned by the family of David
Green, evangelical Christians who also own Mardel, a Christian bookstore
chain.
The other company is Conestoga Wood
Specialties Corp. of East Earl, Pennsylvania, owned by a Mennonite
family and employing 950 people in making wood cabinets.
