Forced To Pay For Birth Control

There is a big birth control controversy going on here in the U.S. relative to the widely unpopular "Obama Care" law that passed last year.  Under that new health care law, all health plans must offer a range of preventive services at no extra charge to the plan holder, including all forms of birth control for women that have been approved by the government's Food and Drug Administration. But some religious groups object to this on the basis that birth control is against their religious principles. So making the churches and small family businesses pay for the birth control pills and other means has upset quite a few churches and family owned smaller businesses. They have sued more than once in federal court to have that portion of the law invalidated.

The case is now before the highest court (The Supreme Court) and is expected to impact the whole Obama Care Act that many see as an unfair and unconstitutional intrusion on their first amendment rights by the government. This, they say, is due to it requiring every person to buy health care insurance (whether they want it or not). Some of the nearly 50 businesses that have sued over covering contraceptives object to paying for all forms of birth control.  But the companies involved in this specific case are willing to cover most methods of contraception, as long as they can exclude drugs or devices that the government says may work after an egg has been fertilized.  In other words, no abortion pills after contraception are acceptable to them. So the key issue in this case involves family owned companies and religious organizations that provide health insurance to their employees, but who object to covering certain methods of birth control that they say can work after conception, in violation of their religious beliefs. 

The Obama administration says that a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the opponents to mandatory employer paid, employee free birth control, also could undermine other laws the government passed "making" an individual do what the government says is necessary for the society as a whole. Hmmm  If the court sides with the government, it would, theoretically, mean that the Obama administration could make churches do just about anything it wanted,  pay for abortions for instance, in the name of the public good.

The court will have to decide whether the birth control requirement really interferes with an individual's religious freedom, and if so, whether the government  policy is more important than that religious freedom.  Really, birth control pills are quite cheap and are often given free to women who can't afford  the small cost of them. But the Obama administration is playing politics by insisting that birth control be included in all health care plans, given that many of it's supporters are women who advocate that position.
Well, there is one thing I know.... I'm sure glad I can't get pregnant!