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Posted by
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on Wed Dec 18 02:08:41 2013, in response to Universal Health Care is HERE in these USA! Apply Now. www.healthcare.gov, posted by SMAZ on Tue Oct 1 13:19:06 2013.
fiogf49gjkf0d NYDN
Brooklyn federal judge says Catholic groups don’t have to assist in providing third party contraceptive careJudge Brian Cogan issued a permanent injunction exempting four organizations with ties to the Roman Catholic Church from complying with a rule to provide its employees with contraceptive health care coverage through a third party. There are at least 75 similar lawsuits filed around the country.BY JOHN MARZULLI / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
PUBLISHED: MONDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2013, 2:28 PM
UPDATED: MONDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2013, 2:28 PMA Brooklyn federal judge has handed religious groups a huge victory in the war over contraceptive care.
Judge Brian Cogan issued a permanent injunction Monday exempting four organizations with ties to the Roman Catholic Church from complying with a rule to provide their employees with contraceptive health care coverage through a third party.
The decision affects more than 25,000 employees at two high schools, six hospitals, three nursing homes and several nonprofits in the metropolitan area.
The lawsuit, filed last year, challenged an accommodation to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act allowing groups that object to the requirement that health insurance plans cover contraception and related services fill out a form so employees can get that care through a third party.
Cogan granted the relief to the four plaintiffs, which had argued that merely requiring them to fill out a form stating they should be exempt from the mandate for religious reasons forces them to be complicit in a “scheme” to arrange a third-party provider of contraceptive services.
Roughly 75 similar lawsuits have been filed nationwide by nonprofits and religious groups seeking relief from the mandate, said Jennifer Lee, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Lee said this is the first permanent injunction issued by a federal judge to her knowledge.
Cogan dismissed government lawyers’ argument that filling out the form is not a big deal and doesn't place a burden on the plaintiffs’ religion.
“They (the plaintiffs) consider this to be an endorsement of such coverage; to them, the self-certification compels affirmation of a repugnant belief,” Cogan wrote in a 41-page decision released Monday. “It is not for this Court to say otherwise.”
The plaintiffs are Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx, Monsignor Farrell High School in Staten Island, the ArchCare group of nonprofits that provide health care to the poor and disabled, and Catholic Health Services of Long Island, which oversees six hospitals, three nursing homes and a hospice.
“While religious liberty is fundamental, it does not give employers the right to impose their beliefs on employees by denying contraceptive coverage and discriminating against their women employees,” Lee said.
The U.S. Justice Department can appeal Cogan’s ruling.
The Archdiocese of New York applauded the ruling for upholding “religious freedom rights.”
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