The U.S. Supreme Court held a 5-4 vote to exempt Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. from the Affordable Care Act contraception mandate today.
The ruling allows closely-held firms like Hobby Lobby to claim a religious exemption to mandate that requires companies with more than 50 employees to cover preventive care services including contraceptives like birth control pills, morning-after pills, diaphragms and IUDs. Employees of companies who decide not to cover contraception will now have to obtain it from other sources.
Hobby Lobby’s owners originally sued the U.S. government because they believe having to cover certain contraception goes against their Christian faith. Some Christian conservatives see the Affordable Care Act rule as the government interfering in there religion. Either way, giving for-profits firms the freedom of such religious expansion may open the floodgates for groundbreaking corporate protections.
Women’s reproductive rights advocates are strongly against the idea that certain business can pick and choose which contraception methods to cover for their employees. Many picketed outside SCOTUS this morning with sings that read “not my boss’s business,” and more.
The Supreme Court’s official Twitter page responded to the criticism saying, “Don’t overread Hobby Lobby. The Court makes clear women can still get coverage and it isn’t opening the door wide to religious claims,” in one tweet and “Under the Hobby Lobby decision, the government can pay for the coverage itself so that women receive it,” in another.
What do you think about the Supreme Court’s ruling?