US Justice Department opposes block on Obamacare contraception mandate
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Version 0 of 1. The Obama administration says a US supreme court justice should stop blocking the new healthcare law's requirement that some religion-affiliated organizations provide health insurance that includes birth control. The Justice Department called on justice Sonia Sotomayor to dissolve her stay, issued late on New Year’s Eve, on the contraceptive coverage requirement of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The government says religious nonprofit groups can certify that they don't want to provide contraceptive coverage. Sotomayor acted on a request from an organization of Catholic nuns in Denver, the Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged. Its request for an emergency stay had been denied earlier in the day by a federal appeals court. The government is "temporarily enjoined from enforcing against applicants the contraceptive coverage requirements imposed by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," Sotomayor said in the order. Government lawyers say the nuns' insurance is a "church plan" that is not required to provide contraception coverage and has decided not to, so they have no legal basis to complain. The White House on Wednesday issued a statement saying that the administration is confident that its rules "strike the balance of providing women with free contraceptive coverage while preventing non-profit religious organizations with religious objections to contraceptive coverage from having to contract, arrange, pay, or refer for such coverage." It is not known when Sotomayor will make a decision. Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |