According to the Associated Press, a Supreme Court justice has issued an emergency stay to halt the birth control mandate for Catholic organizations.

Catholic organizations had petitioned the Supreme Court to stop those elements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that would have forced them to provide health insurance that included birth control coverage.

The organizations asked the Court to issue the stay until they had a chance to make their argument before the Court. The full court has already agreed to hear constitutional challenges of the birth-control mandate, which will occur at a later time. According to SCOTUSBlog, those cases have not yet been scheduled for oral argument.

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These organizations claim that the ACA infringes on their freedom to practice their religion because the law requires they provide the use of contraceptives, which the Church forbids.

The portions of the ACA to which these Catholic organizations objected would have gone into effect on Wednesday, January 1, 2014.

[“Supreme Court” via Wikimedia Commons]