NHeLP Amicus Brief in Grace Schools v. Sebelius

Executive Summary

The ACA recognizes that preventive health services are critical to individual and community health. It accordingly requires new group health plans and health insurance issuers to cover such additional women’s preventive health care services as provided for in guidelines supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). (2) Regulations implementing this provision provide an accommodation for the group health plans of certain religious non-profit organizations. (3) After an organization self-certifies that it qualifies for the accommodation, women who participate in the organization’s health plan will have access to contraceptive coverage directly through a third-party insurer. (4) Thus, these laws accommodate sincerely held religious beliefs while also recognizing that women have unique reproductive and gender specific health needs.

Brief of the National Health Law Program, American Public Health Association, National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, National Women’s Health Network, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Los Angeles, Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, Forward Together, IPAS, Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS), HIV Law Project, and California Women’s Law Center as amici curiae in support of defendants-appellants.

 

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