White House Caves on Religious Accommodations to HHS Mandate

on July 23, 2014

The Obama administration announced Tuesday evening that they would create a workaround to allow nonprofits to claim religious exemptions from the Obamacare contraception mandate without filing out a controversial form. The wider exemption, which will be finalized next month, came after a series of defeats for the administration at the nation’s highest court.

At issue is EBSA Form 700, which religious nonprofits are required to sign before they are granted religious exemptions from the HHS mandate. Many religious nonprofits have complained that signing the form, which simultaneously directs insurers to provide the contraceptives, also violates their religious beliefs by making them complicit in the process. The result was something of a legal catch-22: in order to avoid acts that violate their religion, nonprofits would have had to violate their religion. Catholic and evangelical organizations such as Wheaton College, the University of Notre Dame, and Little Sisters of the Poor filed lawsuits against the Obama administration to receive accommodations without filing Form 700.

Earlier this month in Wheaton College v. Burwell, the Supreme Court granted relief to the evangelical college, saying they do not have to fill out the form, but can instead simply write a letter to the administration informing them of Wheaton’s religious opposition. In a statement, a Justice Department official pointed to the Wheaton College decision as the impetus behind the decision. “In light of the Supreme Court order regarding Wheaton College, the Departments intend to augment their regulations to provide an alternative way for objecting nonprofit religious organizations to provide notification…”

That announcement came only a few days after the Supreme Court’s decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, in which the Court ruled 5-4 that for-profit corporations could file religious liberty claims under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Hobby Lobby, a craft store chain owned by the Southern Baptist Green family, also objected to providing certain forms of contraception required under the HHS mandate.

Even earlier in the year, the Supreme Court granted a similar injunction to the Little Sisters of the Poor, a group of Catholic nuns who, in line with church teaching, oppose contraception and oppose the scandal and complicity that would have come from filing the form. As it did with Wheaton College, the Court ruled that the Little Sisters simply needed to “inform HHS of their religious identity and objections.”

Religious liberty supporters ought to be pleased with this recent development, but cautiously so. Keep in mind, these religious organizations sued after the administration had already created an accommodation they believed was a “compromise.” At the very least, it is heartening to see executive officials making greater strides to accommodate the beliefs of religious Americans. It’s a shame that it took millions in legal fees and years of political posturing for them to do so.

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