WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), leader of the Senate Democrats’ #ACAWorks campaign and a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, joined U.S. Senators Al Franken (D-Minn.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and a group of more than 30 Democratic senators in filing an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on the need to protect women’s access to affordable birth control. The brief was filed ahead of next month’s arguments in the consolidated cases of Zubik v. Burwell, which is yet another attempt by some employers to interfere with women’s access to health care by denying women and their families insurance coverage for birth control.

Currently, health insurance plans must cover the full range of FDA-approved birth control, without any out-of-pocket costs. Millions of women are already benefiting from this provision. Churches and other houses of worship are exempt from the requirement, and the law also allows some employers who have cited religious objections to “opt-out” of offering health insurance plans that cover contraception. 

Nonetheless, some employers want to further deny their workers access to insurance coverage of birth control. In Zubik v. Burwell, these employers have challenged the ACA’s birth control policy in court, arguing that even the “opt-out” process violates their religious beliefs. In the Senators’ amicus brief, they argue that the policy—and its “opt-out” process—strikes the right balance between respecting religious liberty and ensuring that the women who work for these employers are able to receive coverage of birth control. The Senators also warn that striking down the policy may open the floodgates to even more challenges to public health and anti-discrimination laws.  

“[We] have a strong interest in expressing to this Court that this provision and the final rules implementing the requirement…appropriately balance relevant interests using the least restrictive means of accomplishing the government’s compelling interests in advancing public health and welfare and promoting equality for women,” the senators wrote. “Since the passage of the ACA, women’s health care coverage has increased and out-of-pocket expenses for contraceptive services have decreased significantly for millions of American women. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act was not intended to be used to inhibit access to basic public health services, as Petitioners are attempting to do here by impeding women’s access to the contraceptive coverage to which they are entitled. The cost-free contraceptive coverage requirement and the religious accommodation properly advance Congress’s compelling interests without imposing an impermissible burden on employers’ exercise of religious rights. [We] respectfully request that this Court reject Petitioners’ challenges to the ACA’s contraceptive coverage requirements and the religious accommodation provisions, and uphold the decisions of the Third, Fifth, Tenth, and District of Columbia Circuits.”

This case, along with this session’s many high profile cases, underscores the importance of expeditiously filling the vacant seat on the Court.

You can read the full brief by clicking here. 

The bicameral amicus brief was filed with the Supreme Court yesterday and was signed by 33 Senators and 90 members of the House of Representatives who were part of Congressional passage of the ACA. In addition to Murphy, Franken, and Murray, Senate signers include Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Martin Heinrich (D-N. Mex.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).