Pro-Lifers Offer Contraception-Mandate Compromise – What Will The Government Do?

Religious non-profits don’t want to offer employees “free” contraceptive drugs that could induce abortions, but Obamacare requires it through the law’s contraception mandate.

Religious organizations not exempt from the mandate, like Little Sisters of the Poor, also objected to the Obama administration’s so-called accommodation, which requires them to notify the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in writing of their religious objections. The government contacts the insurance company or plan administrator and requires them to pay for the drugs. 

But pro-lifers contend that even the accommodation requires their involvement with a law they find objectionable.

Several groups challenged the mandate, and the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments. Last month, the court asked the parties to submit supplemental briefs to reach a compromise — likely to avoid a 4-4 deadlock. Justice Antonin Scalia’s death left the court short of a tie-breaking vote.

WORLD reported this week that Little Sisters of the Poor, one of the parties in the case, has offered a compromise. Non-profits would tell their insurance companies not to include such drugs in the plan. The insurance companies would be responsible for the “free” drugs — with separate coverage, separate enrollment, and separate insurance cards (emphasis added):

“Boiled down, the insurer would offer employees a separate contraceptive-only plan, which the nonprofits said should not be a complex arrangement because people already have separate cards for dental and eye insurance. The brief said some states already require the availability of contraceptive-only plans, and that ‘still more states allow insurance companies to market separate abortion coverage.’

“The nonprofits said this would not ‘hijack’ their plans, as they have previously argued, because they would not be required to take ‘affirmative steps … on pain of massive penalties’ to include coverage in their health plans.”

Do you think the government will accept the nuns’ compromise?