Author Topic: Court strikes down mandate for birth control in ObamaCare  (Read 993 times)

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Offline happyg

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Court strikes down mandate for birth control in ObamaCare
« on: November 01, 2013, 04:56:17 pm »

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.

The split ruling against the government 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.

http://thehill.com/blogs/regwatch/court-battles/188983-appeals-court-rules-against-birth-control-mandate

Offline Bigun

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Re: Court strikes down mandate for birth control in ObamaCare
« Reply #1 on: November 01, 2013, 04:58:42 pm »
Hallelujah!

This is a HUGE win for our side!

 :flag: :flag:
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Offline Lando Lincoln

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Re: Court strikes down mandate for birth control in ObamaCare
« Reply #2 on: November 01, 2013, 05:26:33 pm »
The left ain't gonna like it - and by extension, this will damage the Obamacare brand in their eyes.  Obama must be going into bunker mentality.  Watch for him to launch some missiles at an Iranian nuke site or something.
There are some among us who live in rooms of experience we can never enter.
John Steinbeck

Offline Millee

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Re: Court strikes down mandate for birth control in ObamaCare
« Reply #3 on: November 01, 2013, 05:31:00 pm »
Hallelujah!

This is a HUGE win for our side!

 :flag: :flag:

Yes it is!!   :cheerlead:

I've been worried about Hobby Lobby closing its doors over Obabmacare too. 

Offline flowers

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Re: Court strikes down mandate for birth control in ObamaCare
« Reply #4 on: November 01, 2013, 05:32:39 pm »
*girl beer*  Prez ValJar won't be pleased.


Offline Formerly Once-Ler

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Re: Court strikes down mandate for birth control in ObamaCare
« Reply #5 on: November 01, 2013, 05:56:32 pm »
This is fantastic news.