Skip to content
Business
Link copied to clipboard

Phila. Archdiocese sues over ACA contraception 'accommodation'

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against the federal government, alleging that Affordable Care Act requirements that group health insurance plans offer contraception violated its religious and other rights.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against the federal government, alleging that Affordable Care Act requirements that group health insurance plans offer contraception violated its religious and other rights.

The 26-page complaint said that the archdiocese and its affiliates, if they do not get relief in federal court, face debilitating fines totaling $160,000 per day.

The archdiocese specifically objected to the government's "accommodation," which allows a religious organization to turn over the administration of contraceptive products to a third-party administrator.

The suit said that the archdiocese and its affiliates can't do that and "adhere to their sincerely held Catholic beliefs on the dignity and sanctity of human life." - Harold Brubaker