Colorado Nuns appeal birth control ruling to Supreme Court

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

DENVER (AP) — A group of Colorado nuns is appealing a federal appellate court ruling that found that President Barack Obama's health care law adequately protects them from having to provide coverage of contraception for their employees, potentially setting up another combustible debate over birth control and religion in the midst of next year's presidential election.

Attorneys for Little Sisters of the Poor and four Oklahoma Christian colleges announced Thursday that they will appeal last week's ruling from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. A three-judge panel on that court found that the law already accommodates the nonprofits by allowing them to file for an exemption from the contraception mandate. The religious institutions argued that exemption is inadequate because a third party will still end up providing birth control coverage in opposition to their religious beliefs.

"The Sisters consider it immoral to help the government distribute these drugs," Mark Rienzi, senior counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, who represented the nuns, said in a statement. "But instead of simply exempting them, the government insists that it can take over their ministry's employee healthcare to distribute these drugs to their employees, while dismissing the Sisters' moral objections as irrelevant."

Last year the Supreme Court found that "closely-held" businesses like Hobby Lobby were also exempt from the law's contraception mandate. Those businesses now have access to the exemption that the nuns contend is inadequate.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/26cc9764799744cda9740531091bec3b/colorado-nuns-appeal-birth-control-ruling-supreme-court

[PoliticAverse]

1. Maybe it's time to separate health insurance from employment. n/t

[still_one]

14. and you really don't think that they would argue that a government health insurance program has no

right to supply birth control to anyone because "it is violating their belief system"?

[PoliticAverse]

15. It would be irrevalent, there would be no first-amendment argument there

that the court would accept, as the money would come out of the government's general fund.

For example a quaker can't refuse to pay income taxes because some of it might fund war:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/27/us/us-sues-quaker-group-over-taxes.html

[still_one]

16. There appeal won't fly either, because it is a third party that is supplying the birth control, not

them

[jeff47]

26. The Hyde Amendment says "Hi". (nt)

[FiveGoodMen]

18. Absolutely!

Single payer for everyone.

The only decent approach.

[Matariki]

25. +1

long overdue.

[olddots]

2. devolution in America

[ck4829]

3. These nuns sure like to make it known they don't need any birth control

[Proud Liberal Dem]

6. They're acting like they're being forced onto birth control

or something



Why do people care so much about such things? If you don't like birth control, don't take it. If you don't like abortion, don't get one. If you don't like GLBTs don't be GLBT. Government is NOT making anybody use/do/be any of these things and there is absolutely no reason why government should be allowed have a say in any of these things either and it burns me up to see people fight so vociferously for making government get involved in them.

[csziggy]

7. They want the right to force other women OFF birth control

Ignoring the freedom of religion guaranteed in the Constitution. They seem to think that means freedom to inflict their religion on everyone else.

People like this is why I do not believe in any organized religion.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

20. Me neither

Some people have some real wacky notions about "freedom of religion" and some real ignorance about what the founders intended when they wrote the Constitution in terms of religion. The absence of the establishment of a state religion and the purpose of the First Amendment was not some accident, quirk, misunderstanding.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. How are they "helping the government distribute" birth control?

Health insurance PAYS for the drugs, it does NOT hand them out. *SMH*

[world wide wally]

5. They don't provide shit.

They take money out of their employees paychecks to pay for health insurance. The insurance company then pays for the contraception.
Apparently, they have no problem paying for wars or guns for corrupt police or subsidizing oil companies to contribute to global warming. The Pope wouldn't like that.

[olegramps]

8. It is fact that those in control of the Church are totally out of touch with the average member.

The Catholic Church's insistence that contraception is immoral has been totally rejected by the vast majority of the membership. Why the laity still supports the church is difficult to comprehend. But it is no less beyond understanding than the evangelicals being fleeced by charlatans that head up the mega-churches.

[perdita9]

9. I object to drone strikes...

...but as a taxpayer, I wind up paying for them anyway.

I'm really getting tired of the church's endless hissy fits about birth control. Considering the child abuse cases I read about every week, I think more people should be using birth control.

[jonno99]

27. But if you had the opportunity to "opt out" of paying for drone strikes - wouldn't you? nt

[perdita9]

30. A system where people pick and choose what to pay for is unrealistic

I don't know of any government who's put together a working model on this.

[jonno99]

31. You mean like a cafeteria (plan)? nt

[Novara]

10. They're like the South - admit it - YOU LOST

The administration created a perfectly good work-around to accommodate these assholes where they don't even have to fill out the opt-out form anymore - because evidently filling out an official form saying they want to opt out was too onerous. They only need to state they won't cover it, and the insurance makes all the arrangements. How even filling out a damn form is too hard is beyond me, but they don't even need to do THAT anymore. Now just stating they don't want to cover it is too damn hard??

Honestly, the administration keeps trying to work with these twits - and other twits like them - and they still keep whining and stomping their feet in a temper tantrum like 2 year olds.

Get over it, you lost.

Quit forcing your damn religion down everyone else's throats.

[procon]

11. The SCOTUS made a huge error in Hobby Lobby that opened this Pandora's Box

What were they thinking? Religious groups are highly selective in cherry picking out the best bits for their agenda, and it gave these religious claimants with wherewithal to engage in open discrimination, a powerful weapon for use against those groups they disapprove of. Worst, those who are the receiving end of all these suddenly sacred religious taboos, have no course of redress short of agreeing to someone else's views and accepting whatever harm may befall them as a consequence.

There is no good way out of this mess. The power of religion now tops everyone else's needs, it's the law. Today women -- and as a result, men too -- are losing access to something as commonplace as birth control, abortion rights are steadily being chipped away, so what will the rest of us have to give up tomorrow to accommodate someone else's newly discovered, "closely-held" religious beliefs?

[cstanleytech]

12. I dont see scotus siding with them if they are trying the whole "but a 3rd party might provide it"

angle.

[still_one]

13. Maybe its time to take there tax exemption away. Who do they think they are telling people they

cannot go to a third party for birth control

They may not like it, but these control freaks should only be concerned within there own organization, not someone elses

[Kelvin Mace]

17. Given the proper contraceptives

they could be "The Little Sisters of the Middle Class".

[Dont call me Shirley]

19. Oh stop Sisters, you'll never get pregnant so leave those who may get pregnant alone.

[question everything]

21. Can't help remembering that crude comment by Earl Butz about the pope:

"He no playa the game, he no maka the rules."

[TlalocW]

22. So exactly how does this exemption work in real life

You sign up for it, and money is taken automatically out of your paycheck for the birth control. Then how does the bc get to you? You go to the doctor and get it? The pharmacy? It's sent to you? Seriously asking.

TlalocW

[christx30]

24. Then gay government agents

come to your house, pin you down, and force the birth control down your throat. At least, according to the Little Sisters.

But what actually happens is that a small bit of the money you pay for insurance gives you the option of free birth control. But the decision to partake in it is up to you and your doctor. Not some nun somewhere.
The nuns don't want you to have the option in any way.
There is already an exemption for them. They can already opt out of buying insurance that includes birth control. They just fill out a form, and someone else picks up the tab. "We're not comfortable with providing this, from a moral perspective. Get it somewhere else." But they think that filling out the form gives you permission for you to get it yourself.
My friend doesn't drink, doesn't like alcohol, and I respect that, and won't make her go out to a bar and buy me a beer. But she would never prevent me from going out to a bar myself. She would say "I don't like bars, but you go have fun. Call me if you need a ride home."
The nuns are trying to bar the door to prevent me from leaving the house.

[Little Tich]

23. The nuns don't have to use contraceptives if they don't want to.

If their employees want access to modern healthcare that includes contraceptives, they shouldn't have the right to object.

[Turbineguy]

28. When I want a really good steak recipe

I always ask a lifelong vegetarian.

[jberryhill]

29. And some religious groups find blood transfusions immoral too

Tough.