Pittsburgh Diocese Settles Lawsuit Over Birth Control Mandate

Oct. 17--The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has settled its five-year legal fight over Obamacare's birth control mandate, Bishop David Zubik announced Tuesday.

According to the settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, religiously affiliated organizations like the Catholic Charities of Pittsburgh will not have to cover contraception as part of its employer-provided health insurance, Zubik said.

"It's preserving the First Amendment of the Constitution," Zubik told the Tribune-Review on Tuesday. "The concern that I had from the very beginning was that this was going to be a slippery slope that was going to tear down religious freedom."

Zubik said attorneys from Jones Day, the law firm that represented the diocese pro bono, finalized the settlement Monday evening.

The diocese sued the Department of Health and Human Services in May 2012 over an Obamacare provision requiring employers to provide health insurance that include contraceptive coverage. Churches were exempt under the old Obamacare rules, but not religiously affiliated organizations like Catholic Charities of Pittsburgh. Those organizations could seek a federal accommodation in which the insurance providers would cover the cost of contraception, not the employers.

The Diocese of Pittsburgh sued because it felt that even asking for the accommodation violated the organization's First Amendment rights.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie and Geneva College, a Beaver Falls school affiliated with the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and six religious organizations across the country joined the suit. The Diocese of Greensburg filed a similar challenge. Its case was on hold pending the outcome of Pittsburgh's case.

"This is a positive and substantive victory for every religious institution espousing that religious and moral beliefs must be supported by the fundamental right of religious freedom as envisioned by the founders of our great nation," Greensburg Bishop Edward C. Malesic said in a statement.

The Diocese of Pittsburgh's case, Zubik v. Burwell, had worked it way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In May 2016, the justices sent the case and six similar cases back to the lower courts for reconsideration.

Contraception was not covered for employees of organizations affiliated with the Diocese of Pittsburgh while the church fought the case. No diocese employees who had coverage lost it because of the settlement, Zubik said.

Zubik said he felt people work for organizations like Catholic Charities of Pittsburgh knowing birth control won't be covered.

The settlement was reached 10 days after the Trump administration issued new federal regulations that granted any employer a religious exemption under Obamacare. It is not yet known how many employers will seek the religious exemption or how many women will lose contraceptive coverage, said Laurie Sobel, associate director of women's health policy at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, which has been following the Zubik case. The American Civil Liberties Union, National Women's Law Center, Center for Reproductive Rights and the attorneys general of California and Massachusetts have already filed lawsuits challenging the new regulations, Sobel said.

Zubik said the settlement was separate from the new federal regulations.

"This settlement restores religious freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment," Zubik said in a statement issued by the church. "This has been a long legal and spiritual battle. I am grateful to the many religious organizations across the country who courageously took up this cause. Throughout these five years, I have prayed that our country would continue to uphold and respect religious freedom. My prayer continues that together we may protect the lives and rights of all human beings."

Aaron Aupperlee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at [email protected], 412-336-8448 or via Twitter @tinynotebook.

___

(c)2017 The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Greensburg, Pa.)

Visit The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Greensburg, Pa.) at www.triblive.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.