The Supreme Court has ruled that requiring for-profit corporations to provide free contraception, including abortion-inducing drugs, as part of the new HHS mandate is unconstitutional and “substantially burdens the exercise of religion.”
The case before the Court involved three for-profit companies, Hobby Lobby, Mardel and Conestoga Wood Specialties, all run by Christian families who believe life begins at conception.
The owners of the corporations therefore objected to the requirement of the HHS mandate, passed by the Obama administration, that all employers must provide access to abortive contraception as part of the healthcare insurance provided for each employee.
Lower courts had said that companies such Hobby Lobby could not be exempt from providing abortive contraception on conscience grounds since they were a for-profit company and the right to religious freedom did not extend beyond individuals.
But in the Supreme Court this week, five justices to four ruled that the owners of the three companies enjoyed the same protections in law as indivdiual citizens, and were therefore permitted to reject the contraceptive mandate on the basis of a conscientious objection.
Furthermore, the Court established that while providing healthcare to the American people is certainly a compelling government interest, the government “itself has demonstrated that it has at its disposal an approach that is less restrictive than requiring employers to fund contraceptive methods that violate their religious beliefs.”
The ruling means that 'closely held', for-profit corporations, which constitute 90 percent of all U.S. businesses, can now opt-out of the mandate on the basis that providing abortificients to employees would violate their deeply held religious beliefs.
Difficult choice
The contraceptive provisions of the healthcare mandate left merchants with the difficult choice of giving up the right to seek judicial protection of religious liberty or forgoing the benefits of operating as corporations. Upholding these provisions would have meant that Christian merchants no longer had the freedom to run their businesses according to their beliefs. However, the Supreme Court held that merchants do not have to make that choice – freedom of religion is protected even when exercised by for-profit companies.
“We doubt that the Congress that enacted [Religious Freedom Restoration Act] would have believed it a tolerable result to put family-run businesses to the choice of violating their sincerely held religious belief or making all of their employees lose their existing healthcare plans,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the opinion, which was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Anthony Kennedy.
"Great day for religious liberty"
Commenting on the decision, Adele Keim, counsel at The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty which represented Hobby Lobby, said:
"Today is a great day for religious liberty. As the court said today: if the government wants to get contraceptives out to American women, it has many other ways to do that without forcing people of faith to carry their water."
Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel David Cortman said: “Americans don’t surrender their freedom by opening a family business. In its decision today, the Supreme Court affirmed that all Americans, including family business owners, must be free to live and work consistently with their beliefs without fear of punishment by the government. In a free and diverse society, we respect the freedom to live out our convictions. For [Hobby Lobby], that means not being forced to participate in distributing potentially life-terminating drugs and devices.”