SCOTUS Rules Employers Can Deny Birth Control Coverage On Religious And Moral Grounds

Reproductive health rights advocates have condemned the ruling, which could result in as many as 126,000 women losing coverage for their birth control.

Getty Images
Getty Images

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that employers can opt out of providing birth control coverage to women because of religious or moral objections. The ruling, which could result in as many as 126,000 women losing birth control coverage, is being decried by many women and reproductive rights advocates.

In a 7-2 ruling, the court sided with the Trump administration against an Obama-era mandate requiring, under the Affordable Care Act, that most employers provide cost-free coverage for contraception.

Trump vowed to fight against the “contraception mandate,” and under his administration, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) broadened the number of institutions that can claim exemption on religious and moral grounds. Originally, houses of worship were exempt from the mandate and some organizations that had religious oppositions could could seek accommodation. But under the revised HHS rules, essentially all nongovernmental workplaces who claim to have a religious or a moral objection can have exemption. The revised rules faced opposition from a number of states and were blocked by federal courts, including the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Justice Clarence Thomas, who has faced sexual assault allegations, wrote the majority opinion, saying, “We hold that the Departments had the authority to provide exemptions from the regulatory contraceptive requirements for employers with religious and conscientious objections.” Thomas was joined in the majority ruling by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh (who also faced sexual assault accusations), Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch. Liberal Justices Elena Kagan and Stephen G. Breyer sided with the conservatives’ ruling, but they said lower courts should examine whether the administration’s rules were “consistent with reasoned judgment,” the Washington Post reported.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the dissent, saying, “Today, for the first time, the Court casts totally aside countervailing rights and interests in its zeal to secure religious rights to the nth degree.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor joined her dissent.

Many reproductive health advocates condemned the ruling.

“Today’s ruling is egregious — people rely on birth control for their health, for their livelihoods, and for their ability to determine their own futures,” Planned Parenthood CEO and President Alexis McGill Johnson said on Wednesday.

NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue also stated on Wednesday, “The Supreme Court’s decision to allow the Trump administration to put control over people’s birth control in the hands of the whims of their bosses and employers is deplorable. This decision just further exposes that ultimately, the Radical Right is really about controlling women and our lives with no eye towards equality or public health and well being.”