A U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Monday that allows employers to withhold free coverage on some kinds of contraceptives for religious reasons may not have an impact on Maine, but it could set the stage for a future court battle challenging a state law.
Legal experts told the Portland Press Herald that the court’s removal of a mandate from the federal Affordable Care Act requiring free coverage for contraceptives will not affect a Maine law that requires insurers to provide contraception coverage. The 1999 law requires insurers to provide contraception coverage when prescription and outpatient care is included in plans.
“Maine businesses would have to follow Maine law,” Zach Heiden, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, told the newspaper. “The decision (Monday) represents a carve-out of a federal statute. But the knives don’t come anywhere near the Maine statute.”
Edward F. Feibel, an attorney with Eaton Peabody, told the Press Herald that the Supreme Court’s ruling could open up a lawsuit challenging Maine’s contraceptive law that only allows exemptions for churches and religious schools.
“It would at least provide a Maine employer grounds to argue that, notwithstanding an insurance code mandate, that the exclusion under Maine law is too narrow, that the state can’t limit the exclusion in the way that it has,” he said.
