The Southern Baptist Convention’s health and financial benefits entity has filed a putative class-action lawsuit against the health care reform law’s contraceptive mandate on behalf of church plans.
The suit contends the religious liberty of the organizations covered by GuideStone Financial Resources (which arranges health coverage and retirement benefits for clergy and others) is violated by the mandate requiring employers to pay for contraceptives and drugs they say cause abortions. The lawsuit (Reaching Souls Int’l et al., v. Sebelius) cites 16 counts, including violations of the First Amendment’s free exercise and establishment clauses and the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
It was filed on Oct. 11 at the U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City. Joining GuideStone in the suit are Oklahoma City-based Reaching Souls International and Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland, Ga.
The suit seeks a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the mandate until the judicial process is complete. The mandate, based on final rules issued June 28, 2013 (78 Fed. Reg. 39870), will take effect Jan. 1, 2014.
“GuideStone plans do not cover drugs or devices that can or do cause abortions,” GuideStone President O.S. Hawkins said in a written release on Oct. 14.
Drugs covered by the reform mandate include Plan B and other “morning-after” pills that possess a post-fertilization mechanism that prevents implantation of embryos.
The administration “wants to tell us that we not only have to provide [abortifacients], but without cost to anybody that wants them,” Hawkins said on Sept. 16.
The complaint was raised in opposition to the mandate and what it calls its lack of adequate conscience protections for religious employers.
The groups note that church plans are left out of exemptions that grandfathered health plans and religious organizations are entitled to.
[The plaintiffs’] religious beliefs forbid them from participating in the government’s scheme to provide abortion-inducing drugs and devices. Yet the government refuses to exempt Reaching Souls and Truett-McConnell as “religious employers.”
More than 1 million pastors and church workers depend on church plans for their health benefits, the lawsuit says.
“We reluctantly take this step because we are committed to protecting the unborn and preserving the religious freedom that is guaranteed under the laws of this nation,” he said.
In a related development, Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., cosponsored the Church Health Plan Act (S. 1164), which would help church health plans regain some protections lost under the health care reform law.