Birth Control Ruling Upsets Religious Groups
In a long-anticipated decision that will affect millions of women’s ability to pay for contraception, the Obama administration announced that it would not allow religiously affiliated employers such as universities and hospitals to deny full birth control coverage to the women they employ.
Under the new rule, set forth by the Affordable Care Act, most women employed in the U.S. will have the cost of their birth control covered with no co-pay. Churches and other places of worship would continue to be exempt from having to cover contraception for their employees if they morally object to the practice, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, but all other organizations will have a year to comply with the new requirement, regardless of whether or not they are religiously affiliated.