What the Supreme Court Just Decided Might Ruin Obama’s Weekend

Obamacare premiums are going up in 2016. Too many Americans learned they couldn’t keep their doctors and can’t afford “affordable” health care. The subsidized, mandatory system has not worked out as the president promised.

And neither has the contraceptive mandate. Under Obamacare, employers must offer contraceptives in their health plans. But some drugs might induce abortion. Religious business owners and non-profit organizations object to proving such coverage.

In the Hobby Lobby case (2014), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government can’t force closely held corporations with religious objections to provide contraceptive coverage for employees. Now non-profits want a similar exemption from the mandate and the so-called accommodation.

The court has decided to hear arguments on the issue. From the Daily Signal:

Plaintiffs in the cases the Court will decide include Little Sisters of the Poor, Priests for Life, East Texas Baptist University, Southern Nazarene University, Geneva College, the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and other religious charities.
…
After religious organizations objected to the mandate, the Obama administration created a so-called “accommodation” that requires employers to notify the Department of Health and Human Services of their religious objection to providing such coverage in writing.

The government thinks this scheme satisfies the employer’s religious beliefs because the notification initiates the process of insurers and third-party administrators providing the mandated coverage at no cost to the insured.

Christians contend that the accommodation still requires their involvement with the contraceptive mandate. First, they have to inform the government of their objections, then the government arranges for a third party to provide the coverage. Earlier this year, the court temporarily blocked the Obama administration from enforcing the mandate on certain religious non-profits in Pennsylvania.

As the Daily Signal states, the Obama administration doesn’t have to involve businesses and non-profits in its quest to provide women with “free” birth control. So why push it on people who oppose it?

Photo credit: American Life League (Creative Commons) – Some Rights Reserved