This is from the Director of Catholics United:
"On the surface, the optics of this case could not be more sensational: Obamacare forces Little Sisters of the Poor to provide contraceptive coverage for celibate women, which is against their beliefs.
But when examining the details of the case more closely, it became apparent the circumstances of this case before the Supreme Court are in actuality irresponsibly frivolous.
As per the religious accommodation finalized by the Department of Health and Human Services in November 2012, the nonprofit Little Sisters of the Poor are seeking relief from the requirement that they self-certify as a religious entity. If the Little Sisters self-certified, they would be exempted from complying with the contraceptive mandate. That is, the Little Sisters of the Poor and their legal defense team, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, are protesting the fact that a religious employer has to sign a piece of paper stating they are religious.
The Becket Fund claims doing so constitutes a substantial burden on the Little Sisters’ free exercise of religion.
The Becket Fund also falsely claims that self-certifying as a religious entity would trigger a third party health care administrator (TPA) to begin providing birth control, a medical provision they deem immoral, to their employees. As the Justice Department stipulated in court, the government does not have the legal authority under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to compel the Little Sisters’ TPA, Christian Brother Services, to provide these services. Under ERISA, independent religiously-affiliated TPAs like CB Services qualify as “church plans,” automatically exempted from the federal provisos otherwise enforced for secular employers and TPAs.
So, in addition to refusing to sign a piece of paper stating they are religious, the Little Sisters and CB Services are preventing their employees from getting medical services they were not going to get."
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