Providence, RI – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) released the statement below today regarding the Supreme Court’s decision in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., which will allow closely-held corporations to opt out of the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that employer-provided health insurance offer coverage for birth control.
“This is just the latest example of the activist Roberts Court siding with the narrow interests of corporations over those of the American people. Ignoring the clear will of Congress, the Court’s five conservative justices today ruled that corporations have religious beliefs that they can put ahead of the medical well-being of the women who work for them. The decision sets a dangerous precedent by allowing for-profit corporations to meddle in decisions that should be left between a woman and her doctor, and I’m deeply disappointed in the Court’s ruling. It follows an increasingly predictable pattern of five activist, conservative Supreme Court justices deciding in 5-4 decisions that the Constitution and our laws mean whatever the Republican Party and big corporations want them to mean.”
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