WASHINGTON (CNS) – The religious nonprofits challenging their participation in the contraceptive mandate under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) agreed with a U.S. Supreme Court proposal that such coverage be provided through an alternative health care plan without involving the religious employers in a legal brief filed with the court.

The brief, filed April 12 in the case of Zubik v. Burwell, said that as long as any alternative plan offering contraceptive health coverage is “truly independent” of the petitioners and their health insurance plans, then they would no longer object to the ACA’s goal of providing access to free birth control to women.

Any such arrangement would require a separate insurance policy, a separate enrollment process, a separate insurance card and a separate payment source and be offered to employees through a separate communication, thus protecting the petitioners’ objections under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to the contraceptive mandate, the brief said.

“We said yes to the court. There certainly are ways that people can get contraceptive coverage without using the religious organization providing health plans to do it,” Mark Rienzi, senior counsel with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said.

“The point of the case is not to say the government cannot get people to have contraceptives. … The claim has always been ‘I just can’t be involved. You can do whatever you want, just leave me out of it,’” he added.

“Our argument is if the government is willing to do something separate, that would be fine with us,” he told reporters.

Health insurance programs already exist in states across the country that offer separate contraceptive and abortion coverage under the ACA to meet employer concerns.