Exemptions from Contraceptive Rule Threaten Rather than Protect Religious Freedom

The Washington Post (op-ed): Exemptions from the ‘contraception mandate’ threaten religious liberty, by Frederick Mark Gedicks:

Can my employer make me pay the cost of practicing his religion? In the coming months, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide two cases involving just this issue. The cases are about the Affordable Care Act’s “contraception mandate” — the law’s requirement that employer health plans cover Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives without out-of-pocket expense, including co-payments, co-insurance or deductibles. The employers in these two cases are among scores of profit-making businesses that are claiming a religious right under a federal statute to be excused from this requirement because the use of contraceptives violates their owners’ religious beliefs. . . .