Union Pacific and Contraceptive Coverage – What’s Really Going On?

All right, I’m confused.

Union Pacific goes to a higher court to argue that they do not have to provide healthcare coverage for the cost of prescription contraceptives, and they win.

Than I read in the NY Times that the Union Pacific, which has been providing coverage for contraception since they lost the initial lower court case in 2005, does not intend to take the coverage away.

In July 2005, a federal district court in Nebraska ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and ordered Union Pacific to cover all prescription contraception approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Under Thursday’s ruling, the company could end that coverage. But a spokesman for Union Pacific, the nation’s largest rail line with more than 50,000 workers, said yesterday that the coverage would continue.

“We’re not going to take it away,” the spokesman, Mark Davis, said. The ruling covers all of the railroad’s unionized female employees.

So what were they doing in court????

Addendum:

Okay, so I may have figured it out. Apparently after UP initially filed their appeal, collective bargaining between the railroads and the unions led to contraceptive coverage anyway, so they can’t back out on it now.

However the 8th Circuit ruling means that UP won’t have to pay the plaintiffs attornies’ fees or back contraceptive costs. Still, I can’t help but wonder who else was pushing them to continue their appeal on this one. It has such far reaching impact…