Obama administration gives groups more time to comply with birth control rule

“This decision marks a tremendous victory,” said Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.). “For years there has been a relentless campaign to politicize women’s health issues and it is endangering the health of women and their families. The administration deserves credit for standing its ground and following the science.”

Birth control is the most commonly prescribed drug for women age 18 to 44, and polls suggest that large majorities of Americans of all faiths support its use.

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The rule requiring its inclusion in health plans fleshes out a more general provision in the 2010 health-care law mandating that all new insurance policies cover preventive services without co-pays or other out-of-pocket charges. These must include a range of services particular to women.

Sebelius has specified that the list will contain all forms of birth control approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including methods that are controversial — such as the emergency contraceptives Plan B and Ella, commonly referred to as “morning-after pills,” as well as sterilization.

The one-year delay option announced Friday will not be available to religious institutions that already offer some degree of contraception coverage — including many Catholic universities and hospitals in states that have their own birth control requirements. Church-affiliated universities also cannot postpone offering contraception coverage to their students, as opposed to their workers, regardless of whether they currently provide it.

To qualify for the delay, an institution must certify to federal authorities that it is a nonprofit organization and that, for religious reasons, it does not presently offer contraception to its workers. The employer must also notify employees that birth control is available through other sources such as community health centers, public clinics and hospitals, with support provided to low-income patients who might otherwise have difficulty paying for it.

Once the extra year has expired, the employer could presumably avoid covering birth control by ceasing to offer workers health insurance altogether. But if any of the workers need government assistance to purchase insurance on their own, the employer would then face steep fines.

It is unclear how many women will be affected by the delay because there are not reliable estimates of the numbers employed by church-affiliated instiutions. It is also not known how many of these individuals and their dependents get health insurance through such employers.

Administration officials said Friday that the delay was offered in response to complaints by religious organizations that it would be difficult to comply with the rule within a matter of months.

But several religious leaders interviewed Friday ridiculed that explanation.

“This is not a logistical matter. This is a matter of conscience,” said Dennis Brown, spokesman for the University of Notre Dame, a Catholic institution.

Galen Carey, head of government relations for the National Association of Evangelicals, agreed but said the delay would at least prove “minimally helpful” in one regard: “It gives those groups that are affected more time to pursue litigation to overturn this. And, of course, it pushes the ultimate decision into the next administration, which, if it’s a new administration, possibly would reverse this.”

Already, a college and a university have filed lawsuits in federal courts challenging the constitutionality of the birth control rule. They are represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit firm that was also counsel to the winning side of the Supreme Court’s recent finding that churches are exempt from employment discrimination suits by their ministers.