The Supreme Court on Tuesday, November 26, agreed to hear cases on whether corporations may refuse to provide insurance coverage for contraception to their workers based on the religious beliefs of the corporations’ owners. President Obama’s health care law has exempted many religious groups from the law but did not exempt for-profit corporations because of owners’ religious objections.
The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) will be submitting a “friend of the court” brief to the Supreme Court that lays out how birth control advances the health and rights of women. Nearly 99 percent of women use contraception at some point during their reproductive years who come from a variety of religious faiths. And currently nearly 27 million women can get free birth control without copays — a number that will increase as the health care law continues to go into effect.
Most women’s organizations believe that allowing bosses to make women’s health care decisions is a dangerous precedent that could lead to companies refusing to abide by other laws that protect their employees, such as employment protections like minimum wage or equal pay.
Sign the pledge to say all women deserve to make their own birth control decisions — no matter where they work.