--- title: Religious Groups Remain Concerned About Contraception Mandate description: Religious nonprofits won't have to pay for contraception coverage under ObamaCare, but their employees must be offered the benefit, the Department of Health and Human... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7183495/religious-groups-remain-concerned-about-contraception-mandate/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2013-02-01T17:21:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-18T07:16:37.607Z article:section: Politics og:title: Religious Groups Remain Concerned About Contraception Mandate og:description: Religious nonprofits won't have to pay for contraception coverage under ObamaCare, but their employees must be offered the benefit, the Department of Health and Human... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7183495/religious-groups-remain-concerned-about-contraception-mandate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f50710e8fbe2177/698b232d0116820ad198d1d5/the-pill.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: An illustration picture shows a woman holding a pill at her home in Nice og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Religious Groups Remain Concerned About Contraception Mandate twitter:description: Religious nonprofits won't have to pay for contraception coverage under ObamaCare, but their employees must be offered the benefit, the Department of Health and Human... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f50710e8fbe2177/698b232d0116820ad198d1d5/the-pill.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) # Religious Groups Remain Concerned About Contraception Mandate by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Feb 1, 2013 5:21 PM UTC  An illustration picture shows a woman holding a birth control pill at her home in Nice January 3, 2013\. French health regulators are studying limiting the use of contraceptive pills that carry health risks and will stop reimbursing prescription costs of some types from March, after a woman sued drugmaker Bayer over alleged side-effects. An inquiry launched this week by the ANSM health regulator will review prescription practices by doctors, whom it says may be over-prescribing higher-risk third and fourth-generation pills. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard (FRANCE - Tags: HEALTH) - RTR3C2QC An illustration picture shows a woman holding a birth control pill at her home in Nice January 3, 2013\. French health regulators are studying limiting the use of contraceptive pills that carry health risks and will stop reimbursing prescription costs of some types from March, after a woman sued drugmaker Bayer over alleged side-effects. An inquiry launched this week by the ANSM health regulator will review prescription practices by doctors, whom it says may be over-prescribing higher-risk third and fourth-generation pills. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard (FRANCE - Tags: HEALTH) - RTR3C2QCREUTERS by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Feb 1, 2013 5:21 PM UTC Religious nonprofits won’t have to pay for [contraception](http://topics.time.com/contraception/) coverage under [ObamaCare](http://topics.time.com/obamacare/), but their employees must be offered the benefit, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed Friday in [a rule-making proposal](http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2013pres/02/20130201a.html). The announcement was mostly a codification–not a change–from the somewhat tangled religious exemptions that the administration proposed last year. Under the framework, houses of worship, like mosques and churches, would not be required to offer contraceptive coverage to employees. But the employees of other religious nonprofits, like Catholic hospitals and evangelical colleges, would get contraception coverage, though it would be paid for by insurers, not employers. For-profit companies would be required to pay for contraception coverage themselves, even if the owners objected on religious grounds. The announcement Friday expended the definition of religious nonprofits who could benefit from insurer-funded contraception, and offered new options and procedures for self-insured religious non-profits that do not want to shoulder the direct cost of contraceptive coverage. But the new proposal left in place its most controversial elements, earning more praise from Planned Parenthood than from the [Catholic Church](http://topics.time.com/catholic-church/) and conservative evangelicals. The announced rules offer no relief for private for-profit companies, whose owners object to contraception. The Christian-run crafts store Hobby Lobby, for example, has filed suit against the administration, saying it should not be required to pay for insurance that covers treatments that violate its owner’s beliefs. More than 40 other lawsuits have been filed by both secular non-profits and religious for-profits, claiming that the mandate violates their religious beliefs. “Today’s proposed rule does nothing to protect the religious liberty of millions of Americans. The rights of family businesses like Hobby Lobby are still being violated,” says Kyle Duncan, General Counsel at the Becket Fund. “The Becket Fund continues to study what effect, if any, the Administration’s proposed rule has on the many lawsuits currently pending on behalf of non-profit religious organizations like Ave Maria University, Belmont Abbey College, Colorado Christian University, East Texas Baptist University, EWTN, Houston Baptist University, and Wheaton College.” Cardinal Dolan of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops was also cautious upon hearing about the rule. He issued only a very short statement: “We welcome the opportunity to study the proposed regulations closely. We look forward to issuing a more detailed statement later.” Liberal groups, by contrast, were effusive. Catholics United executive director James Salt called the announcement “a victory not only for the Obama administration, but for the Catholic Church” and “a good day for Americans.” Women’s groups Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America both applauded the measure, with the caveat that they would review the technical aspects of the proposal to ensure a woman’s rights were protected, no matter who her boss is. The idea that birth control coverage would still be available for women whose religiously-affiliated employers object to it is by no means new. TIME’s Kate Pickert wrote about it on Swampland almost a year ago to the day. --- > “” --- You can read her full story [here](http://swampland.time.com/2012/02/10/mired-in-the-sticky-politics-of-health-and-faith-obama-shifts-on-contraception/). The new proposal will be open for public comment for the next 60 days, after which the final rule will be published. The issue is then likely to be litigated in the courts. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7183495/religious-groups-remain-concerned-about-contraception-mandate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7183495/religious-groups-remain-concerned-about-contraception-mandate/"},"headline":"Religious Groups Remain Concerned About Contraception Mandate","datePublished":"2013-02-01T17:21:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-18T07:16:37.607Z","description":"Religious nonprofits won't have to pay for contraception coverage under ObamaCare, but their employees must be offered the benefit, the Department of Health and Human...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7183495/religious-groups-remain-concerned-about-contraception-mandate/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f50710e8fbe2177/698b232d0116820ad198d1d5/the-pill.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f50710e8fbe2177/698b232d0116820ad198d1d5/the-pill.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"An illustration picture shows a woman holding a pill at her home in Nice","caption":"An illustration picture shows a woman holding a pill at her home in Nice","creditText":"REUTERS","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7183495/religious-groups-remain-concerned-about-contraception-mandate/","name":"Religious Groups Remain Concerned About Contraception Mandate"}}]}] ```