Federal Judge Overturns Missouri Law Nullifying Contraception Mandate
A federal judge struck down critical portions of a Missouri law that gave employers and employees an exemption from the health insurance contraceptive mandate based on religious objections. Missouri’s law, the first of its kind to address the federal contraceptive mandate, passed last fall after the Republican state legislature overrode Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Audrey Fleissig struck down the parts of the law that provided an exemption from the contraceptive mandate on the grounds that the state law conflicted with federal law. Fleissig said she was not addressing the constitutionality of the contraceptive mandate itself....