Nation & World A6
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THE DAILY HERALD
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TUESDAY, 07.01.2014
A blow to health-care law Some firms can reject contraceptive coverage, Supreme Court rules By Stephanie Haven and Michael Doyle McClatchy Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — In an ideological split that undercuts the 2010 health-care law, a narrowly divided Supreme Court ruled Monday that certain business owners can reject on religious grounds the law’s mandate to provide employees with birth control coverage. In a groundbreaking 5-4 decision, the court concluded that closely held corporations may claim religious rights similar to those enjoyed by individuals. The decision expands exemptions from the so-called contraceptive mandate imposed by the Affordable Care Act. It doesn’t affect other insurance provisions in the law, such as blood transfusions or vaccinations. “Protecting the free-exercise rights of closely held corporations thus protects the religious liberty of the humans who own and control them,” Justice Samuel Alito said, writing for the majority. While the ruling struck a blow to the Affordable Care Act, it explicitly says the decision can’t be used as a “cloak” to mask “illegal discrimination as a religious practice.” In her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the decision one of “startling breadth” and stressed the targeted implications of the ruling on women. “The exemption sought by Hobby Lobby and Conestoga would override significant interests of the corporations’ employees and covered dependents,” Ginsburg wrote. “It would deny legions of women who do not hold their employers’ beliefs access to contraceptive coverage that (the health care law) would otherwise secure.” Hobby Lobby, an Oklahoma City-based chain of arts and crafts stores, and Conestoga Wood Specialties, a Pennsylvania furniture maker, brought the legal challenge. The owners of Hobby Lobby, who employ 13,000 people in more than 500 stores, claimed that the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate violated their rights under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The latter law, created in 1993, says the government “shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” unless the action is the least restrictive means to serve a compelling purpose. The court ruled that providing contraceptives without cost is not the “least restrictive” means to achieve its goal, thus violating the religious freedom law. Employees from corporations with religious exemptions aren’t barred from seeking other insurance for contraceptives. The government, for one, could cover the free medications guaranteed under the contraceptive mandate. “If the government wants to, on its own, go around providing people with benefits, that’s not something most of the plaintiffs object to,” Hobby
WASHINGTON — No more pelvic exam? New guidelines say most healthy women can skip the yearly ritual. Routine pelvic exams don’t benefit women who have no symptoms of disease and who aren’t pregnant, and they can cause harm, the American College of Physicians said Monday as it recommended that doctors quit using them as a screening tool. It’s part of a growing movement to evaluate whether
College student loan rates increase today
WASHINGTON — Interest rates go up today for students taking out new federal loans. This hike is relatively minimal but could foreshadow more increases to come. The change stems from a high-profile, bipartisan deal brokered last year by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama that ties the rates to the financial markets. Interest rates go from 3.86 to 4.66 percent on undergraduate Stafford loans. Graduate student loans go from 5.41 percent to 6.21 percent. Interest rates on Plus loans for parents go from 6.41 percent to 7.21 percent. For every $10,000 borrowed, the average borrower under the hike will pay back about $4 more every month when they begin paying back the money. If the economy continues to improve, however, these kinds of rate hikes could continue. Congress stipulated that the rates for new loans be reset annually, but that borrowers keep the rate they were given for the life of the loan.
Calif.: Downey’s son busted
PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Demonstrators react to hearing the Supreme Court’s decision on the Hobby Lobby case outside the Supreme Court in Washington on Monday.
Reactions confirm deep divisions A sampling of reaction to the Supreme Court ruling Monday that some companies, like the Oklahoma-based Hobby Lobby chain of arts-and-craft stores, can avoid the contraceptives requirement in President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, if they have religious objections. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.: “Today’s decision is a victory for religious freedom and another defeat for an administration that has repeatedly crossed constitutional lines in pursuit of its big government objectives.” White House spokesman Josh Earnest: “President Obama believes that women should make personal health care decisions for themselves rather than their bosses deciding for them.”
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The Supreme Court rules that public labor unions can’t make nonmembers pay fees, A7 Lobby lead counsel Mark Rienzi, of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit public-interest law firm, said in a conference call afterward. The response to the decision was immediate and appeared to fall largely along partisan lines. Democrats and liberal social groups criticized the decision as a step backward in protecting women’s health; Republicans and conservative social groups said it championed the protection of religious freedoms. “The government cannot unreasonably force Americans to set aside their beliefs simply because they go into business to provide for themselves, their families and their employees,” according to a statement from Sarah Torre and Elizabeth Slattery, a religious-liberty policy analyst and legal analyst, respectively, for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research center. Presidential spokesman Josh Earnest said the White House disagreed with the ruling and would work with Congress to ensure that employees in exempt corporations “have the same coverage
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate : “Today, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of religious freedom by taking a stand with Hobby Lobby. Religious liberty will remain intact and all Americans can stay true to their faith without fear of big government intervention or punishment.” Hillary Rodham Clinton, former secretary of state and potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidate: “I disagree with the reasoning as well as the conclusion. Just think about this for a minute. It’s the first time that our court has said that a closely held corporation has the rights of a person when it comes to religious freedom.” Associated Press
... as everyone else.” “The ruling allows the bosses of these women to essentially step in and say,” he said, “ ‘Well, I have a religious concern, so you’re not allowed to make your own decision about whether or not you’d like to benefit from these services. We’re going to make sure that they aren’t provided.’ ” The looming midterm elections figured in some reactions. “Today’s Supreme Court decision is a stark reminder of how important it is for Democrats to keep hold of the Senate,” said Stephanie Schriock, the president of EMILY’s List, which backs Democratic female political candidates who favor abortion rights. “When the future of our judiciary branch and women’s access to health care is at stake, we need every woman to get out and vote in November.” The highly anticipated ruling marks the first time the high court has taken up the Affordable Care Act since it upheld in June 2012 the law’s important mandate that most people have health insurance. The health-care law sets minimum standards for the insurance packages offered by businesses that employ more than 50 people. The plans must cover certain preventive exams, immunizations and
screenings for diseases such as diabetes. They also must cover an array of contraceptive methods, including pills, diaphragms, intrauterine devices and emergency contraceptives. The founders of Hobby Lobby, who are Christians, said that at least part of the contraceptive mandate violated their religious freedoms, namely the conviction that life begins at conception, when an egg is fertilized. As a result, Hobby Lobby officials objected to providing or paying for the contraceptive drugs known as Plan B and Ella. The drugs, sometimes called the morning-after pill and the week-after pill, respectively, can prevent fertilized eggs from implanting in the womb. Anti-abortion advocates consider the medications tantamount to abortion. “This lawsuit has wrongfully been depicted as a conflict between religious employers and women,” said Hadley Heath Manning, the health policy director for the Independent Women’s Forum, a conservative women’s policy group. “If the government wants to make birth control even more accessible, there are many other ways that it can do so without forcing employers with religious convictions to pay for abortifacients.”
Most healthy women can skip pelvic exam Associated Press
ACROSS THE U.S.
many longtime medical practices are done more out of habit than necessity. Scientific evidence “just doesn’t support the benefit of having a pelvic exam every year,” said guideline coauthor Dr. Linda Humphrey of the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Oregon Health & Science University. “There will be women who are relieved, and there are women who really want to go in and talk with their doctor about it and will choose to continue this,” she added.
The recommendations aren’t binding. A different group, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, still recommends yearly pelvic exams, even as it acknowledges a lack of evidence supporting, or refuting, them. Pelvic exams have long been considered part of a “wellwoman visit,” and 62 million were performed in the U.S. in 2010, the latest available data. Here’s what put the test under the microscope: Pap smears that check for cervical cancer used to be done yearly but now
are recommended only every three to five years. So if women weren’t going through that test every year, did they still need the pelvic exam that traditionally accompanied it? During a pelvic exam, a doctor feels for abnormalities in the ovaries, uterus and other pelvic organs. But two years ago, scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the internal exams weren’t a good screening tool for ovarian cancer and shouldn’t be required before a woman was prescribed birth control pills.
Actor Robert Downey Jr. thanked authorities Monday for arresting his 20-year-old son on suspicion of cocaine possession and said the family was determined to get him the help he needs. Indio Falconer Downey was taken into custody Sunday afternoon after a car he was riding in was pulled over in West Hollywood, authorities said. Over the years, his father had a series of high-profile drug-related arrests. “Unfortunately, there’s a genetic component to addiction and Indio has likely inherited it,” Robert Downey, Jr. said in a statement.
Hawaii: Naval exercises The commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet said Monday China’s first-time participation in the world’s largest maritime exercises in Hawaii will help Beijing and other nations work together in a crisis. The Rim of the Pacific drills will help countries respond as they did when Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines last year and when Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared in March, Adm. Harry Harris told reporters at a news conference opening a month of training. “These are multilateral events. Real world operations. It helps us if we practice together in settings like this,” Harris said.
Colo.: 3 die in plane crash Three people are dead after their small plane crashed into a slope at the Loveland Ski Area in Colorado. The single-engine plane burst into flames when it crashed Monday morning, setting off a small wildfire that was quickly contained. Capt. Randy Long of the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office said a witness told authorities the plane was trying to cross the Continental Divide.
AROUND THE WORLD Canada: Ford out of rehab Toronto Mayor Rob Ford acknowledged a drug problem for the first time and vowed that his commitment to “living clean is now unwavering” as he returned to work Monday after a two-month stay in rehab. Ford read an emotional statement at City Hall, but refused to take questions, after checking out of a facility in Ontario. The mayor of Canada’s largest city said staff at the rehab facility saved his life. “For a long, long time I resisted the idea of getting help,” he said. “Like a lot of people dealing with substance abuse, I was in complete denial. But it soon became obvious that my alcohol and drug use was having a serious, serious impact on my family, on my health and on my job as mayor.” Ford didn’t specify which drug or drugs, but he acknowledged last year that he had smoked crack in a “drunken stupor.”
N. Korea: Two face trial North Korea said Monday it is preparing to try two Americans who entered the country as tourists for carrying out what it says were hostile acts against it. Investigations into Americans Matthew Todd Miller and Jeffrey Edward Fowle concluded that suspicions about their hostile acts have been confirmed by evidence and their testimonies, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said in a short report. North Korea has also been separately holding Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae, of Lynnwood, since November 2012. He was convicted by a North Korean court and is serving 15 years of hard labor, also for what the North said were hostile acts against the state. From Herald news services