On 24 October, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit rejected a company’s claim that it should be exempt on religious grounds from “Obamacare” requirements to provide contraception coverage in its employees’ health insurance plans. Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), employers with more than 50 workers that provide health care insurance plans must include contraceptives cover or face fines of up to $100 a day for each employee. The legislation has some exemptions for houses of worship, non-profit religious and church-affiliated organisations like hospitals, universities and charities.
The Court in this case based its judgment on the “total absence of case law” to support the argument that the “personal right” of free exercise of religion protected by the US Constitution’s First Amendment applies to artificial entities like corporations. The court concluded that “the law has long recognised the distinction between the owners of a corporation and the corporation itself. A holding to the contrary – that a for-profit corporation can engage in religious exercise – would eviscerate the fundamental principle that a corporation is a legally distinct entity from its owners.”
Click here to read an article in the New York Times about the contraception cover mandate in the PPACA.
This requirement to provide contraceptive cover has been subject to various legal challenges. On 19 September, a company owned by a Mennonite family petitioned the US Supreme Court. Another appeals court rejected the company’s argument that the contraceptive cover requirement violates the US Constitution’s First Amendment free exercise clause and violates a federal law, the Religious Freedom Act.
Click here for a brief summary of previous and pending cases concerning this issue.
Click here to read an editorial in the New York Times about corporate funding of employee contraception.