Birth control mandate lawsuits make case for systematic disrepect toward religion

Some news accounts of why the Obama administration didn't accommodate all faith-based organizations chalked it up to a politically calculated decision pushed by top advisers to the 2012 presidential campaign. Still, lobbying by Roman Catholic bishops, evangelicals and other religious leaders for a broader exemption prompted the Obama administration to put off enforcement for nonprofits until August 2013.

Meanwhile, fines have been mounting since the first of 2013 for many for-profit business owners who won't comply with a mandate that forces them to violate the tenets of their religious beliefs.

Systematic disrespect

Legal scholars say preliminary rulings on the lawsuits brought by devout business owners have been divided over whether legally protected religious liberties extend to for-profit companies, prompting speculation that the U.S. Supreme Court will have the weigh in.

But the high court will focus on the high-profile claims brought under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a 1993 law that bars government from restricting the exercise of religion without a compelling government interest, and not whether religious advocates should have been heard by the IOM.

The IOM story is in the lawsuits that claim the government also violated the federal Administrative Procedures Act by, among other things, ignoring the complaints about the mandate by religious parties.

"They’ve got constitutional, statutory and regulatory claims at all levels, trying to give a full picture of the way they believe their clients were denied the respect that’s due them," said Robert Tuttle, a law and religion professor at George Washington University. "This is a claim of systematic disrespect that operates at every level, even the right to effectively participate at the administrative rule making process."

The lawsuits filed by the Becket Fund, which represents seven religious schools, a broadcast network and the Hobby Lobby craft store chain, round out a narrative of bias against religious concerns with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius telling a crowd at a NARAL Pro-Choice America fundraiser that "we are in a war." The speech happened six days after HHS reportedly received more than 100,000 public comments against the mandate, the complaints state.

Evidence not policy

HHS isn't commenting on the pending lawsuits.

IOM officials say those who know the history and purpose of the organization understand it's not part of the problem alleged in the lawsuits.

The institute, established in 1970, is the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, which has existed since the Civil War. Over the decades the IOM has established a strict process that separates the social ramifications of an issue so that experts can focus on the science involved and make recommendations based on scientific evidence.

Clyde Behney, IOM's deputy director, said the IOM committee was charged with finding out what preventive services are important to women’s health and well-being and then recommending which services should be considered by the HHS.

But pro-life advocates and opponents to the mandate say it's hard to believe the IOM stuck to its mission when the testimony it heard was limited to groups that support contraception and it recommended emergency contraception drugs, like the morning after pill, as preventative health care.

"Such drugs, which end the life of an unborn child and can wound his or her mother, are not preventative women’s health care," said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List. "For many Americans, including the non-religious and the secular, these drugs are the antithesis of health care."

Behney said the committee heard from organizations that could provide data and outcomes on women's health needs, while anyone was allowed to submit written comments. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops submitted a statement, but the majority of documentation was submitted by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.