Written by Don Byrd
Last week, the Obama Administration issued a final rule governing the contraception coverage mandate in the Affordable Care Act. The rule exempts houses of worship, and allows religious institutions like hospitals to avoid the costs of providing such coverage while still requiring insurance companies to provide it for employees. Many employers and religious institutions argue those accommodations do not go far enough, an editorial in today’s New York Times makes the case that the rule hits the right balance.
[T]he administration has gone further than fairness or the First Amendment require to reach a compromise that respects the concerns of some religious entities without sacrificing an employee’s right to make her own decisions regarding contraceptives and not to conform to the religious beliefs of her employer.
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[A] corporation like Hobby Lobby is plainly not a “person” covered by the Restoration Act. In any case, the contraceptive rule still leaves the company’s owners free to rail about the different forms of birth control to which they object and to try to convince employees not to use them. As the Justice Department cogently argued, the burden imposed on any religion is trivial in allowing employees to make their own independent decisions to obtain free contraceptives.
