Supreme Court rules for Little Sisters of the Poor in long-running dispute over birth control mandate
by Nicholas Rowan, Staff Writer
| July 08, 2020 10:15 AM
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the Little Sisters of the Poor is exempt from an Obama-era mandate to provide contraception in their healthcare plans.
The case, Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania, marked the Catholic religious order’s second time before the Supreme Court, after nearly 10 years of legal dispute. It arose when the New Jersey and Pennsylvania state governments sued the Trump administration for exempting the Little Sisters from the contraception mandate.
The exemption, issued in the form of a 2017 executive order from President Trump, stated that the religious order is protected from “undue interference from the federal government.†Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar recommitted to that position the following year with guidelines exempting religious nonprofit groups from contraception requirements outlined in the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
When the case was argued in early May, Pennsylvania Chief Deputy Attorney General Michael Fischer said the state believes that the Trump administration's intervention and the HHS exemptions are “too broad†and will result in women losing coverage for services which the Affordable Care Act deemed as essential healthcare.
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