A number of faith-based nonprofit organisations have united together to express their objection against birth control coverage in their employees' health plans. The group expressed their concern that the government has not made sure that they will not be forced to violate their beliefs.
The group, which included Christian colleges from Oklahoma and nuns from Colorado, said during the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals that the use of contraceptives and the morning after pill was against their beliefs.
They wanted the government to know they were objecting based on religious beliefs so they could get an exemption. According to them, because they were required to sign the coverage over to another party, that makes them a partner in committing an act that violates their moral beliefs.
Greg Baylor, a lawyer for Southern Nazarene University in Oklahoma, said that signing the forms, "is morally problematic. There are plenty of other ways the government could put (emergency contraception) in the hands of the people without us." However, a government representative countered that the exemptions are not necessarily a hindrance to the group's practice of their faith.
The federal health care law requires coverage for all FDA approved contraceptives. Churches are exempted from this, but faith-based organisations, such as universities, charitable institutions, and hospitals, are not.
