Supreme Court Rules Employers Can Choose Not to Provide Free Birth Control

The U.S. Supreme Court has made it more difficult for women to get access to birth control as part of their health plans if their employer has a religious or moral objections to contraceptives.

The opinion upheld a Trump administration rule that significantly cut back on the Affordable Care Act requirement that insurers provide free birth control coverage as part of almost all health care plans.

Under the ACA, churches and synagogues were automatically exempted from the birth control insurance mandate. Not automatically exempt, however, were non-profits like religiously affiliated...

The justices upheld regulations from the Trump administration that allowed employers with religious objections to decline to provide contraception coverage.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a Trump administration regulation that lets employers with religious objections limit women’s access to free birth control under the Affordable Care Act.

As a consequence of the ruling, about 70,000 to 126,000 women could lose contraceptive coverage from their employers, according to government estimates.

The vote was 7 to 2, with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissenting.

Contraception coverage has emerged as...