Supreme Court hears contraception case

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case pitting Catholic nuns against federal requirements that employers provide insurance coverage to workers for contraceptives, including those that can potentially induce abortions.

The Trump administration and the Little Sisters of the Poor, who received a favorable ruling in a similar case in 2016, urged justices, meeting May 6 by telephone conference, to uphold federal rules that protect the rights of employers with religious or moral objections to the abortion/contraception mandate.

Interim regulations issued in 2017 and final rules issued in 2018 protect employers with religious or moral objections to the abortion/contraception mandate, but Pennsylvania, New Jersey and other states challenged the interim rules. (Baptist Press)