A federal appeals court has reversed a lower-court victory won by a private Christian college in Pennsylvania that challenged a provision of the Affordable Care Act. The provision required the college either to include contraceptive coverage for women in the health plans it offers to employees and students, or to opt out and let a third party do so.
Geneva College, in Beaver Falls, Pa., had won an injunction in a federal court in 2013 that temporarily exempted it from the contraceptive-coverage mandate. Two dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church in western Pennsylvania, and charitable organizations that operate within them, had won similar injunctions. Those cases were combined in an appeal decided this week by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
In a unanimous opinion issued on Wednesday, the appellate panel reversed the lower court’s orders, holding that the health-care law and its opt-out mechanism placed no substantial burden on the dioceses or the college, which is affiliated with the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America.
The opinion, written by Judge Marjorie O. Rendell, notes that regulations for enforcing the Affordable Care Act provide an “accommodation” for religious colleges and other nonprofit organizations that oppose the contraceptive-care mandate. Such groups can opt out by self-certifying that they are eligible for the accommodation, under which they do not pay for contraceptive services and the coverage is independently provided by an insurance issuer or third-party administrator.
Geneva College challenged the accommodation, however, saying it violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The college argued that submitting the self-certification form would trigger the provision of contraceptive services, thus making Geneva complicit in providing the services.
Judge Rendell’s opinion rejects that argument. She wrote: “The self-certification form does not trigger or facilitate the provision of contraceptive coverage because coverage is mandated to be otherwise provided by federal law. Federal law, rather than any involvement by the appellees in filling out or submitting the self-certification form, creates the obligation of the insurance issuers and third-party administrators to provide coverage for contraceptive services.”
She added that because groups submitting the self-certification form specifically state that they object on religious grounds to providing such coverage, the accommodation does not make them complicit in providing the services. If anything, she wrote, “it is a declaration that they will not be complicit in providing coverage.”
According to the Associated Press, the college and the dioceses are expected to appeal the panel’s ruling but have not decided whether to appeal to the full Third Circuit Court or to the U.S. Supreme Court.