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Supreme Court Rules for Exemptions in Contraceptive Case
Employers who have religious or moral objections to providing contraceptive coverage in their health plans are no longer legally required to provide that benefit.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Little Sisters of the Poor vs. Pennsylvania that the government "had the authority to provide exemptions from the regulatory contraceptive requirements for employers with religious and conscientious objections."
Although the Affordable Care Act (ACA) doesn't specifically require employers to provide female workers with access to birth control, the Act does say health plans are supposed to provide coverage for "additional preventive care and screenings." The Obama administration interpreted this to include birth control, but exemptions were allowed for religious institutions and nonprofits. However, the Little Sisters of the Poor didn't fall within the exemptions.
The Roman Catholic order first argued that the ACA requirement that employers provide employees with contraceptives violated their religious and moral beliefs. The justices asked the parties to compromise, but the Obama administration wouldn't alter its rules.
After President Trump took office, the federal government issued a rule that broadened which entities could be exempted from the contraceptive requirements. The state governments in New Jersey and Pennsylvania then sued the Trump administration for exempting the Little Sisters from the Obama contraception mandate, which they lost, leading to this final ruling.
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