Four Private Christian OK Colleges Lose ObamaCare Contraceptive Appeal
4 private OK colleges lose contraception case appeal
by Carla Hinton
An appellate court ruled Tuesday against four Oklahoma private Christian universities in the schools’ battle over a controversial federal health care mandate they said violates their religious convictions.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver overturned a U.S. District Court ruling that temporarily stopped enforcement of a so-called federal contraception mandate imposed on Southern Nazarene University, Oklahoma Baptist University, Oklahoma Wesleyan University and Mid-America Christian University.
The four colleges are among numerous other religious nonprofit organizations that filed suit against the federal government on the basis that complying with the mandate violates their religious beliefs. The colleges, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, said under the mandate, some of the contraceptives their insurance carriers are required to provide for free for their employees are abortion-inducing drugs that fly in the face of the schools’ anti-abortion convictions. The morning-after pill is among the drugs the schools said they found offensive.
In its ruling, the appellate court said religious nonprofits were given an opportunity to “opt out” of providing the drugs they deemed offensive to their employees. To do this, the ruling stated, the universities could deliver a form to their group health plan’s insurance issuer or third-party administrator or send notification to the Health and Human Services Department.