Skip to content Skip to footer

Supreme Court Ruling Means 126,000 May Lose Contraception Coverage

Critics of the ruling said access to birth control is “basic, essential health care,” as well as a “fundamental right.”

Protesters rally outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., March 23, 2016.

The United States Supreme Court delivered a blow to reproductive rights on Wednesday, siding with the Trump administration in a case that gave employers across the country more leeway in denying contraception to workers if it goes against the company’s morals.

In a 7-2 decision, the Court found that the Department of Health and Human Services was within its authority to create additional exemptions to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) contraceptive mandate, which had previously required companies with employer-based insurance plans, with limited exceptions for houses of worship and religious nonprofit groups, to provide contraception to workers without increasing health insurance costs.

The ruling is viewed as a victory for President Donald Trump, who has pushed to expand contraceptive exemptions to private companies, schools, and other groups on the basis of moral or religious objections.

Justice Clarence Thomas, delivering the opinion of the Court, wrote that religious objectors “have had to fight for the ability to continue in their noble work without violating their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

“We hold today that the [Trump administration] departments had the statutory authority to craft that exemption, as well as the contemporaneously issued moral exemption,” Thomas also said.

While the Court’s ruling is viewed as a win for those believing their religious liberties were being violated, it’s being seen as an egregious error in judgment for proponents of reproductive rights. As many as 126,000 people across the country may lose birth control coverage due to the ruling, with many more at risk of losing access to contraception now that the floodgates of exemptions from the Trump administration have been opened.

The ACA originally required most businesses that offered employer-based insurance to its workers to also pay for contraceptive services for them at no additional cost. In 2014, a ruling from the Supreme Court found that businesses like Hobby Lobby, which argued it was a religious-leaning private company, should also be granted exemptions.

The ruling issued this week expanded the possibility that publicly traded companies could also raise moral objections to the contraceptive mandate, if they fit in-line with the rules on exemptions put in place by the Trump administration.

Criticism against the ruling was swift on social media. Planned Parenthood tweeted out that birth control is largely considered “basic, essential health care.”

“And yet: The Supreme Court just ruled that your boss or university can opt out of covering it based on their personal beliefs,” the family planning organization wrote.

“Birth control is a medical necessity. It helps us plan the lives we want, allowing us to choose if and when to have children,” Planned Parenthood wrote in a second tweet.

Lauren Rankin, a freelance writer who often focuses on reproductive rights, echoed those sentiments.

“You have a fundamental right to contraception care and coverage. This isn’t new,” she wrote. “This isn’t even radical. It’s the bare minimum. Contraception is health care and your insurance company should have to cover it. Today’s reckless Supreme Court decision endangers that for millions.”

Former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal suggested the ruling could be rendered moot, however, if a new administration takes office next year, as the rules on exemptions could be rescinded.

“Notably, the Supreme Court did not say that the Constitution forbids the federal govt from providing contraceptive care — [Justice Samuel] Alito said that but not the Court. So a new Administration can reverse it,” Katyal wrote.

Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn

Dear Truthout Community,

If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.

We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.

Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.

There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.

After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?

It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.

We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.

We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.

Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.

We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.

With love, rage, and solidarity,

Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy