Court rules that HHS mandate trumps state conscience-protection law

March 20, 2013

A federal district court judge has ruled that a Missouri conscience-protection measure is invalid because it conflicts with the HHS mandate.

Missouri’s legislature, overriding the governor’s veto, had passed a law allowing employers not to provide insurance covering contraceptives if “the use or provision of such contraceptives is contrary to the [employer’s] moral, ethical or religious beliefs or tenets.” The law also allowed individual employees to opt out of insurance that covers contraceptives.

The Missouri statute, however, required insurers to “allow enrollees in a health benefit plan that excludes coverage for contraceptives . . . to purchase a health benefit plan that includes coverage for contraceptives" if the enrollees requested it.

Judge Audrey Fleissig, an Obama appointee, said she took “no position on the merits of the conflicting laws,” but merely ruled that the federal health-insurance law and its accompanying mandate took precedence over the state law.

 

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Further information:

• Missouri: Judge Strikes Down Birth Control Measure (AP)
• Affordable Care Act Pre-Empts State Law Giving Opt Out From Contraceptive Coverage (Religion Clause)