A federal judge has dismissed Wheaton College’s lawsuit against the Obama administration for requiring the evangelical Christian college to offer health insurance that covers the cost of contraception, including the morning-after pill, for employees.

The judge’s decision comes just two weeks after the west suburban college was granted an additional year to meet the requirement.

U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle ruled that the lawsuit was premature because the government would not enforce the mandate against Wheaton until August 2013 and promised to revise the mandate to accommodate some religious institutions before it goes into effect.

“Wheaton only tilts at windmills when it protests that it will not be satisfied with whatever amendments defendants ultimately make,” wrote Huvelle, who is based in Washington.

A Wheaton College spokeswoman could not be reached for comment. But Kyle Duncan, general counsel for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said in a statement released by the college on Monday that the court shouldn't trust the government's promise to revise the law.

“In dismissing this case, the court did not address the substantive merits — Wheaton’s argument that being forced to offer drugs that violate its religious beliefs is harmful to its religious freedom,” Duncan said.

Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, said the court might have looked at the complaint differently if the law already had been enforced and Wheaton has been penalized.

“The courts actually require that someone is injured before they take up a question over whether or not a law causes harm,” Yohnka said.

Previously, Wheaton did not qualify for a one-year “safe harbor” from the mandate because it covered emergency contraceptive drugs in its insurance plans after the Feb. 1 cutoff date. The government altered its guidelines earlier this month, giving Wheaton an additional year to meet the requirement.

“The dismissal fails to recognize that the new safe harbor still leaves Wheaton in violation of federal law, and therefore vulnerable to lawsuits authorized by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to enforce the mandate,” Duncan said in the statement. “For that reason, Wheaton is considering its options for an appeal.”

Wheaton is one of a handful of evangelical Protestant institutions opposed to the requirement that employers provide insurance plans that include contraception for women at no cost. More than 50 Catholic institutions also sued the Obama administration for violating their religious freedom with the requirement.

Under the rules announced in January, religiously affiliated organizations such as schools, charities and hospitals would not be exempt from providing care that includes FDA-approved contraception and sterilization procedures.

Unlike Catholic Church teaching, evangelical doctrine does not oppose all contraception. But evangelicals oppose prescription drugs such as morning-after pills that they believe cause abortions.

mbrachear@tribune.com





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