The Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Catholic Charities of Albany, N.Y., Oct. 1, letting stand a state court ruling that said church agencies cannot be exempt from a law requiring coverage for contraceptives in drug benefits for employees.

The New York State Catholic Conference, which represents the state's Catholic bishops in public policy matters, said the bishops will now consider what alternatives have been left to them, "including the painful possibility of a loss of prescription drug benefits in employee health plans."

In the meantime, it said in a statement, "Catholic institutions will continue for the immediate future providing the contraception coverage under formal protest."

The conference's executive director called it "a sad day for religious liberty" in New York and in the U.S.

In orders issued the first day of the 2007-08 term, the court without comment let stand a New York State Court of Appeals ruling that said religious groups may not be exempt from provisions of the Women's Health and Wellness Act of 2002.

The state law requires employers who offer prescription benefits to employees to include coverage for birth control pills. The law also requires health plans to cover other services for women including mammography, cervical cancer screening and bone density tests.

The Catholic conference and other church-affiliated agencies had argued that the law is an unconstitutional violation of religious freedom for religious employers who hold the tenet that contraception and abortion are immoral. They had argued that the law ceded to government the power to define religious faith and practice.

New York's law was challenged by a variety of Catholic and Protestant churches, schools, health care organizations and social service agencies.

"This is a sad day for religious liberty in our state and nation," said Richard E. Barnes, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, in a statement.

Church teaching holds that artificial contraception is sinful and prescription insurance coverage for all employees of church institutions routinely exempts coverage for birth control pills, just as employee health insurance exempts coverage for abortion, sterilization and other procedures the church considers immoral.

"The church's unpopular teaching on contraception was an easy target for the church's detractors," said Barnes. "But as the state's attorneys have conceded in open court, the principle they were defending would have been exactly the same if the issue was abortion rather than contraception."

He went on to say that "an abortion mandate will now become a front-burner issue for the same advocates who promoted the contraception bill." In the last several sessions of the state Assembly, bills have been introduced that would mandate abortion coverage in all insurance plans, he said.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer earlier this year offered his own legislation that would require all insurance plans to cover abortions and require even religiously affiliated hospitals to allow abortions to be performed on the premises.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2004 rejected a similar appeal of a California court ruling that found Catholic Charities of Sacramento must comply with that state's law requiring prescription coverage to include contraceptives. Since then Catholic institutions in California have dealt with the requirement in a variety of ways, said Carol Hogan, director for communications of the California Catholic Conference.

California's law applies to insurance companies, so some dioceses have gone to a self-insurance system that is not subject to the requirement about contraceptives. Hogan said some church institutions remain exempt because of provisions in the California law covering organizations that exist primarily to inculcate religious faith.

---CNS