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Pittsburgh diocese settles suit over birth control mandate

PITTSBURGH — PITTSBURGH (AP) - The Pittsburgh and Erie Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania have settled their lawsuits seeking to overturn a federal Affordable Care Act mandate that would have forced them to provide contraceptive and abortion-inducing drugs or services as part of their employee health care plans.

RELATED: Pennsylvania AG sues over new Trump birth-control rules

President Donald Trump's administration announced Oct. 6 that it was rescinding the mandate that was part of the health reform laws known as Obamacare.

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But lawsuits filed in 2012 challenging the mandate still remained after the U.S. Supreme Court last year ordered the religious entities and the government to settle the dispute.

Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik, the lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court case, announced the settlement Tuesday as one that "restores religious freedom granted by the First Amendment."

The settlement means religiously affiliated organizations like the Catholic Charities of Pittsburgh won't have to cover contraception as part of its employer-provided health insurance.

Zubik talked to Channel 11 about resolving a lawsuit against the department of health and human services over the Obamacare birth control mandate.

The government jointly agreed to the dismissals to settle the lawsuits.

Here's the full statement from Bishop David Zubik:

I am grateful to God that we have reached an agreement with the government that secures and reaffirms the constitutional right of religious freedom. The Diocese of Pittsburgh's 5-year challenge to the HHS mandate provisions of the Affordable Care Act has been resolved successfully.   Our Catholic Charities and other religious organizations of different denominations will not be required to facilitate insurance coverage or practices that are morally unacceptable to them.

The settlement follows the recent release of new federal regulations that provide religious organizations with a full exemption from covering items that violate their core beliefs.

The Diocese of Pittsburgh joined more than 70 religious organizations represented by the law firm of Jones Day in filing an initial challenge to the government's regulations in May 2012.  The diocese objected to the government's definition of a  religious organization. The federal government had exempted houses of worship from covering morally objectionable items in their health insurance plans  but insisted that other religious institutions which are not houses of worship must facilitate such coverage against their sincerely held beliefs.   This rule was based on the faulty premise that religious organizations, such as Catholic Charities, were not religious enough to qualify for the exemption.  We are gratified that the settlement has eliminated a new and dangerous distinction between houses of worship and religious institutions.

This settlement restores religious freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment.  Our litigation sought to re-establish the cornerstone principle that freedom of religion means freedom to practice our faith in daily life, not just in worship and prayer.

On the other hand, this agreement does not prohibit the government from providing contraceptives. But it does prohibit the government and others from using church-related insurance plans as a conduit for such coverage.
This has been a long legal and spiritual battle.  I am grateful to the many religious organizations across the country who courageously took up this cause.  Throughout these five years, I have prayed that our country would continue to uphold and respect religious freedom.  My prayer continues that together we may protect the lives and rights of all human beings.

Several other religious organizations joined Zubik and the Pittsburgh Diocese in the suit. The bishop told me this is about much more than birth control.

The Greensburg Diocese filed a similar lawsuit that was also just settled with the justice department.

The Greensburg Bishop Edward C. Malesic released the following statement on Tuesday:

We are extremely pleased with the favorable settlement that has been reached between the Diocese of Greensburg and the Department of Justice.
This permanent injunction solidifies an exclusive agreement between the government and the diocese. It holds that the Department of Justice will not enforce the HHS mandate, its accommodation, nor its narrow religious exemption on the Diocese of Greensburg. Additionally, this agreement will hold firm in the event of any future regulatory changes that may occur with HHS legislation.
I am deeply grateful to my predecessor, Bishop Emeritus Lawrence E. Brandt, who began work on this extremely important initiative several years ago. And I am appreciative of the highly competent work put forth by Jones Day, our legal counsel who diligently worked on our behalf.
This is a positive and substantive victory for every religious institution espousing that religious and moral beliefs must be supported by the fundamental right of religious freedom as envisioned by the founders of our great nation.

Zubik also wanted to point out that the church does support and pay contraception that's needed and used for other medical reasons, and he does not believe the number of people who will lose coverage is very substantial, because those who work for catholic charities don't expect such coverage.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.