Church-State Watchdog Group Urges Appeals Court To Uphold Obama Administration’s Contraceptive Mandate
American
workers’ access to birth control should not be subject to their
employers’ religious beliefs, Americans United for Separation of Church
and State has told a federal appeals court.
In a friend-of-the-court brief,
Americans United urged the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold
the Obama administration’s contraceptive mandate, which requires most
businesses to provide workers with a health insurance that includes
no-cost birth control.
Several businesses, represented by
Religious Right legal groups, have filed lawsuits contending that they
have a religious liberty right to refuse to comply with the mandate, a
federal regulation issued in conjunction with the Affordable Care Act.
Americans United disagrees.
“The decision to use birth control must rest with the individual,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. “We simply can’t have a health care system in which Americans’ access to contraception varies depending on where the boss goes to church.”
The
case, Newland v. Sebelius, concerns a Colorado firm called Hercules
Industries that manufactures heating and air conditioning equipment. The
company’s owners say they have religious objections to artificial
contraceptives and are arguing that a 1993 federal law, the Religious
Freedom Restoration Act, frees them from providing it to employees, even
indirectly.
Americans United says the company has misconstrued
the law. In the brief, AU argues that the firm’s owners don’t suffer a
substantial burden because some employees might choose to use birth
control.
“An exemption for [Hercules’ owners] would significantly burden Hercules Industries’s employees – many of whom do not share Plaintiffs’ religious beliefs – by making it more difficult, and sometimes impossible, for them to obtain contraception,” asserts the brief.
The brief goes on to assert, “[Hercules owners] have every
right to refrain from using contraception and to attempt to persuade
others to do the same. But once they enter the secular market for labor
to staff their secular, for-profit corporation, they may not force their
religious choices on their employees, who are entitled to make their
own ‘personal decisions relating to marriage, procreation,
contraception, family relationships, [and] child rearing.’”
The
brief was drafted by Americans United Legal Director Ayesha N. Khan,
Senior Litigation Counsel Gregory M. Lipper, and Madison Fellow Ben
Hazelwood.
Other groups signing the brief are Women of Reform
Judaism, the Hindu American Foundation, the Union for Reform Judaism and
the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
Americans
United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C.
Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the
importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.
https://www.au.org/media/press-releases/american-workers-access-to-birth-control-must-not-be-subject-to-employers?utm_source=AU+main+email+list&utm_campaign=4825816f20-2013-01-28+Access+To+Birth+Control&utm_medium=email
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