Religious Nonprofits Challenge Obamacare

In the latest religious challenge to U.S. health-care law, faith-based organizations that object to covering birth control in their employee health plans argued in federal appeals court Monday that the government hasn’t gone far enough to ensure they don’t have to violate their beliefs. Plaintiffs including a group of Colorado nuns and four Christian colleges in Oklahoma argued at the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver that a federal exemption for groups that oppose contraceptives, including the morning-after pill, violates their beliefs. The groups don’t have to cover such contraceptives, as most insurers must. But they have to tell the government they object on religious grounds in order to get an exemption. They argued that because they must sign away coverage to another party, the exemption makes them complicit in providing contraceptives.