NASHVILLE, TN (AP)-- A federal appeals court has refused to grant an injunction that would have exempted Catholic groups in Michigan from the contraception coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act.
In an opinion issued on Wednesday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Nashville, Tennessee wrote that all the plaintiffs already are eligible for either an exemption or an accommodation to the contraception requirement. The accommodation still allows employees to receive contraceptive coverage, but it is paid for and administered by an insurance issuer or third-party administrator.
The plaintiffs claimed that regardless of the exemptions and accommodations, the contraceptive requirement could make them "complicit in a great moral wrong."
Plaintiffs include the Michigan Catholic Conference, Catholic Charities Diocese of Kalamazoo, the Catholic Diocese of Nashville and Catholic Charities of Tennessee.