Franciscan Alliance, other groups’ legal challenge supported by court ruling
MISHAWAKA, Ind. – In 2012, the
U.S.
government began implementing its requirement that certain employers, who
provide a health plan to their employees include, free-of-charge, certain women’s reproductive
preventative services including abortifacients, contraceptives and contraceptive counseling.
As a not-for-profit dedicated to religious
beliefs that do not permit such practices, Franciscan Alliance was exempted
under a “Safe Harbor”
from providing such services until
Jan. 1, 2014. Because
of this deadline,
Franciscan Alliance joined
with other similarly situated corporations to seek injunctive relief in the federal court system to preserve its protections under the U.S. Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration
Act.
On Friday, Dec. 27, the Hon. Jon Deguilio,
U.S. district judge for the Northern
District Court of Indiana
, issued an order granting
a motion for preliminary injunction and enjoining
the defendants, the secretaries
of
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Department of Labor
and U.S. Treasury and their agents and officers and
representatives from
applying or enforcing against the plaintiffs: Franciscan Alliance,
Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Inc., Catholic Charities
of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend,
Inc., Saint Anne Home and Retirement Community of the
Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Inc., Specialty Physicians of Illinois, LLC, the University
of Saint Francis, and Our Sunday Visitor,
Inc., or their employee insurance
plans.
This also included their plan
brokers, plan insurers, or third party administrators, the requirements set
forth in 42 U.S.C. §
300gg-13(a)(4) and 45 C.F.R. § 147.130(a)(1)(iv), corresponding guidelines to provide, pay for, or otherwise facilitate access to
the FDA
approved contraceptive methods, abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization
procedures, and related
patient education and
counseling.
The court recognized the likelihood
of plaintiffs to prevail in
a permanent injunction action
based upon the preservation
of
their deeply held religious beliefs under the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It further
noted that the federal regulations
exempted churches from the mandated requirements but the plaintiffs as not-for- profit organizations, providing charitable
services were only afforded an accommodation. This would
have required them to “facilitate and serve
as the conduit through which objectionable
contraceptive products
and services are ultimately provided to their employees, in violation of their unquestionably sincerely held
religious beliefs.”
Finally, the judge’s
ruling noted that by granting
exemption to churches but
requiring the Catholic
not-for-profitable organizations to act as facilitator and conduit for the provision of objectionable services was, in fact, having the effect of dividing the
Catholic Church into two separate entities,
despite their overlapping membership and leadership
and separating those inside
the church’s
walls from those engaging
in the fulfillment of the religious and charitable missions of the Diocese of the
Catholic Church.
"We simply asked that the
government not impose its
values and policies
on plaintiffs, in direct violation
of
our religious beliefs," said Kevin Leahy, Franciscan Alliance president and chief executive
officer. “We deeply appreciate the
skillful and thoughtful counsel of Jones Day, which coordinated our collective legal challenge.
“Franciscan Alliance
is proud of its heritage as a Not-For-Profit Catholic
Health Care Corporation dedicated to is Mission of
Continuing Christ’s Ministry in Our
Franciscan Tradition,” said Sister Jane Marie Klein, chairperson of Franciscan
Alliance’s Board of
Trustees “We have adhered
to the tenets of the Catholic faith
and continue to look to our sponsor, the Sisters of St.
Francis of Perpetual Adoration, for guidance in continuing its 138-year history
of providing health care to those we are privileged
to serve
in the United States.”
###
About Franciscan Alliance
The Franciscan Alliance
healthcare ministry
began in Lafayette, Ind., in 1875. Today, Franciscan Alliance is one of the largest Catholic
health care systems in the Midwest with 13 hospital campuses, 20,000 employees and a number of nationally recognized Centers
of Health Care Excellence. Hospitals include: Franciscan St. Anthony Health- Crown
Point; Franciscan St. Anthony
Health-Michigan City.;
Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health- Crawfordsville; Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health-
Lafayette East; Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health-Lafayette Central; Franciscan St. Francis Health-Carmel; Franciscan St. Francis Health-
Indianapolis; Franciscan St.
Francis Health-Mooresville; Franciscan St. James
Health-Chicago Heights, Ill.;
Franciscan St. James
Health- Olympia
Fields, Ill.;
Franciscan St. Margaret Health-Hammond; Franciscan St. Margaret Health-Dyer; and Franciscan Healthcare-Munster.
