Supreme Court to Hear Abortion vs. Reproduction Rights Case in Obamacare Fight

The new Obamacare contraception mandate has created an uproar in the religious community and as a result, the Supreme Court will hear a case on March 25th dealing with the employee health plans. 

In this case, the legal question remains: do corporate employers with religious objections have to include contraceptive coverage in their employee health plans? Currently, there's also the scientific questions of whether certain kinds of birth control prevent contraception or destroy a fertilized egg.

The Affordable Care Act requires employers to provide coverage for contraceptive methods, such as birth control, whereas it does not require coverage for methods to end a pregnancy, like an abortion. The issue in question is the usage of the "morning-after" pill, which is considered an emergency contraception that prevents pregnancy.

Two companies in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania say they have no issue covering forms of birth control, but they don't think they should be covering after-intercourse products such as the morning-after pill because they are believed to "act after fertilization and destroy embryos."

The Oklahoma-based company is called Hobby Lobby and is owned by evangelical Christians while the Pennsylvania-based company is Conestoga Wood Specialties and is owned by Mennonites. 

Some medical experts believe that pregnancy begins when the sperm and the egg unite and implantation has occurred. Many federal health agencies also agree with this definition, which would mean emergency contraception would not result in an abortion because the sperm and egg can take several days to officially unite. But religious believers say that preventing such implantation ends a life, thus resulting in an abortion.

To read more about the grey area of abortion between medical experts and religious leaders, visit this CNBC article. Also visit this Reuters article to read more about the upcoming Supreme Court case.