Supreme Court Takes Case on ObamaCare, Birth Control

Companies object on religious grounds to covering contraceptives
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 26, 2013 11:42 AM CST
Supreme Court Takes Case on ObamaCare, Birth Control
File photo of birth control pills.   (AP Photo/Bedsider.org)

ObamaCare is headed to the Supreme Court, but it's a case about the specifics of coverage rather than a broader fight on the program itself. More than 40 companies have sued because they object on religious grounds to providing their employees with birth control, as the new law stipulates. Today, the court decided to take up the case of an Oklahoma arts-and-crafts chain called Hobby Lobby, reports the AP. The family that runs Hobby Lobby describes it as a "biblically founded business" and says the mandate that private, for-profit employers provide contraceptive coverage violates its religious beliefs.

“We’ve said all along that there’s no basis for picking out one corporation, the non-profit versus the profit-making one, and saying that one can exercise religion and the other can’t," says an attorney representing the company, as per MSNBC. But a lawyer for the National Women's Law Center sees it differently: “This would say to a low-wage worker that she has to pay out of pocket when women all around the country are getting it without a co-pay, just because her boss doesn’t think her using birth control is right.” Expect arguments in March and a ruling in June, reports CNN. (More US Supreme Court stories.)

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