A federal judge in Atlanta has exempted the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta and Diocese of Savannah from the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that they cover contraception, abortion and sterilization in their employee insurance plans.
The ruling, issued Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Bill Duffey, is among more than 50 decisions handed down nationwide enjoining the Department of Health and Human Services from enforcing the mandate. More than 30 of these decisions involved private entities and 20 involved non-profits, according to non-profit Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty in Washington.
Duffey’s ruling also enjoins the government from enforcing the mandate on Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, which provides social services and counseling, and Catholic Education of North Georgia, which educates almost 12,000 students and employs more than 4,800 teachers and administrators.
The achdiocese is pleased with the ruling, said Stephen Forte, a lawyer for the Archdiocese of Atlanta.
“The archdiocese is deeply interested in protecting the religious freedom of the Catholic Church, its affiliates and related religious organizations,” Forte said. “The challenge to the government’s mandate on contraception, abortion and sterilization is in furtherance of protecting longstanding, core religious beliefs.”
The affiliates could have received a so-called “accommodation” from the mandate by going through a certification process, but they argued this is not something they should be required to do. They also noted if they refused to do this and also refused to provide the mandatory coverage, they faced steep fines under the act.
For these reasons, Duffey concluded that “the accommodation places substantial pressure on (the Catholic affiliates) to either compromise their religious beliefs or suffer the onerous economic consequence of adhering to what they believe.”
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