KENTWOOD, Mich. — A federal appeals court ruled Sept. 17 that a for-profit manufacturing corporation must provide workers with health insurance that includes no-cost birth control even if it violates the religious teaching of the owners.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Roman Catholic family that owns controlling interest in Autocam, a Michigan business that produces automotive and medical supplies. The family filed a lawsuit objecting to the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act on religious grounds.
The court said a secular, for-profit company is not a person that can exercise religion under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The Southern Baptist Convention Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) supported Autocam and the Kennedy family in a friend-of-the-court brief written by the Christian Legal Society. Along with other groups including Prison Fellowship and the National Association of Evangelicals, the ERLC brief argued that exemptions for “religious employers” in the act are inadequate to protect religious liberty.
Passed by Congress in 1993, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act says the government cannot “substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” without a compelling interest and by the least restrictive means.
Courts have differed over whether the law applies to corporations. In June the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the owners of Hobby Lobby can continue their lawsuit claiming the contraception mandate violates their faith, because it includes methods of birth control that take effect after conception has occurred.
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