The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago has ruled the University of Notre Dame (Ind.) must adhere to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate, according to a report from The Hill.
The Catholic university had requested an injunction, which would have temporarily freed the school from its obligation to provide health insurance coverage for birth control to employees and students under the PPACA. The court found the university hadn't yet shown obeying the mandate posed a "substantial burden," according to the report.
The mandate requires all group health plans and health insurance issuers to provide, without cost-sharing, reproductive preventive care including all FDA-approved contraceptive methods and services, as well as patient education and counseling. The University of Notre Dame is one of many for-profit and nonprofit corporations and organizations that have challenged the mandate on the grounds it violates their religious freedom under the First Amendment and unjustly burdens them under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was enacted in 1993 to protect Americans from laws that infringe on their free exercise of religion.
The U.S. Supreme Court has announced it will consider two cases concerning the contraceptive mandate. The court will hear one of the cases, Hobby Lobby v. Sebelius, on March 25.
More Articles on the Contraceptive Mandate:
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