Court Denies Notre Dame Bid for Contraception Exception

For the second time, a U.S. appeals court denied the University of Notre Dame’s request for a temporary exemption from the Affordable Care Act’s birth-control mandate, the Associated Press reports. The institution sought an injunction allowing it to opt out of the requirement that employees’ health insurance include contraceptive coverage while its suit against the provision makes its way through the courts.

By a 2-1 vote, a panel of the Seventh Circuit court said an accommodation implemented by the Obama administration last year allows Notre Dame to avoid directly paying for contraception and thus does not violate its religious beliefs, as claimed by the university and other faith nonprofits challenging the mandate. Under the workaround, the government arranges such care at nonprofits that state a religious objection to providing birth control.

The Seventh Circuit denied a similar request by Notre Dame in February 2014, but earlier this year the Supreme Court ordered it to reconsider in light of the high court’s June 2014 Hobby Lobby decision, which allows some corporations to opt out of the contraceptive mandate for religious reasons.