The Supreme Court issued an order on Monday preventing the Obama administration from forcing religious groups in Pennsylvania to obey the HHS mandate that requires them to pay for abortion-causing drugs for their employees.
The Supreme Court granted relief in the Zubik v. Burwell case to a group of Pennsylvania-based religious organizations, including Catholic Charities and other social service organizations. In the order, handed down yesterday, the high court said: “[T]he respondents are enjoined from enforcing against the applicants the challenged provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and related regulations pending final disposition of their petition for certiorari.”
“This is the sixth time the HHS mandate has been before the Supreme Court, and the sixth time it has lost,” said Eric Rassbach, Deputy General Counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. “Doesn’t our government have something better to do than fight charities serving the poor?”
“The government has lots of ways to achieve its goals without penalizing religious groups who serve those in need,” said Rassbach. “Every time a religious ministry has taken this issue to the Supreme Court, the government has lost and the religious plaintiffs have been granted relief.”
In April, Justice Alito issued an interim order, protecting the charities and churches from complying with the HHS Mandate while their case continued. This was similar to the preliminary order Justice Sotomayor provided to the Little Sisters of the Poor on New Year’s Eve in 2013.
The Pennsylvania-based religious organizations join over 750 plaintiffs in other nonprofit cases that have been granted protection from the unconstitutional HHS mandate, which forces religious ministries to either violate their faith or pay massive IRS penalties.
A December 2013 Rasmussen Reports poll shows Americans disagree with forcing companies like Hobby Lobby to obey the mandate.
“Half of voters now oppose a government requirement that employers provide health insurance with free contraceptives for their female employees,” Rasmussen reports.
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The poll found: “The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 38% of Likely U.S. Voters still believe businesses should be required by law to provide health insurance that covers all government-approved contraceptives for women without co-payments or other charges to the patient.
Fifty-one percent (51%) disagree and say employers should not be required to provide health insurance with this type of coverage. Eleven percent (11%) are not sure.”
Another recent poll found 59 percent of Americans disagree with the mandate.
