Nadler acts to counter Hobby Lobby ruling
The fallout from the US Supreme Court’s decision in the Hobby Lobby contraception case reached all the way from Washington DC to Brooklyn as House Democrats started forming a response strategy.
US Rep. Jerrold Nadler (Manhattan-parts of Bensonhurst) said that he and US Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colorado) will introduce legislation that would prohibit for-profit companies from using the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) to override women’s access to contraception.
The RFRA, a law passed in 1993 and signed into law by Bill Clinton to http://www.justice.gov/jmd/ls/legislative_histories/pl103-141/pl103-141.html protect the religious freedom of Americans, was used as the basis of the lawsuit filed by the owners of Hobby Lobby, a chain of arts and craft stores with 13,000 employees. The owners argued that the Affordable Care Act mandate to provide health insurance coverage for contraception violated their religious freedom under the RFRA. The owners, David and Barbara Green, who describe themselves as devout Christians, objected to providing coverage for four medications and devices to terminate pregnancies.