The Supreme Court has ruled [2] 5-4 in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby that for-profit employers with religious objections can opt out of providing contraception coverage under Obamacare.

The decision is stunning in its disregard toward women's reproductive rights alone, but also has far larger and more troubling implications, as it could open the door in the future to corporations attempting to withhold coverage for other medical procedures at odds with their religious beliefs.

AASECT members such as Debra W. Haffner, MPH, MDiv have already taken to the Internet to express their displeasure with the decision. Co-founder and President of Religious Institute, Inc., a leader in her Unitarian Universalist community, and former CEO of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), Haffner makes it clear in a piece she wrote for the Huffington Post [3] that this ruling is not, in fact, a victory for religious freedom. "Real religious freedom," she writes, "is the right each of us has to make our own moral decisions about our lives."

Haffner goes on to write that the suit's focus on access to birth control "makes this decision a clear attack on women's sexual and reproductive rights."

Eager to weigh in on the SCOTUS decision? Interested in sharing a link to your own already-published pieces on this issue? Please do so in the comments section below!

(image by Jenny Lee Silver [4])