(Bloomberg) — Women who work for religious nonprofits will have access to birth control at no cost under a procedure the Obama administration said would also relieve their employers of any moral objections to the coverage.
The nonprofits now only have to notify the U.S. government of their objections in writing, the administration said in a regulatory filing to be published today. Coverage will be arranged separately by the government through health-benefit managers.
It isn't clear whether the compromise will satisfy the nonprofit groups or the Supreme Court, which ruled earlier this year that both those organizations and closely held companies are protected from supplying birth control if they object on religious grounds. In a separate filing expected today, the U.S. said it hasn't yet finished a definition for closely held companies covered by the ruling.
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"Women across the country deserve access to recommended preventive services that are important to their health, no matter where they work," Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said in a statement.
The rule allows access to contraception coverage while "respecting religious considerations raised by nonprofit organizations and closely held for-profit companies," she said.
Three days after its June 30 decision on behalf of the craft-store chain Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., the Supreme Court issued an order saying Wheaton College, a Christian liberal-arts school outside Chicago, didn't have to fill out a government form to facilitate contraceptive coverage for its employees and students.
The school said that completing the form would make it complicit in the coverage. While Wheaton covers most birth control, it objects to two pills, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.'s Plan B One-Step and Actavis's Ella.
Under the new government requirement, religious nonprofits would write a letter to the health department announcing their objections instead of filling out a form. It isn't clear if that compromise will satisfy the groups or the Supreme Court.
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