The Stakes On Hobby Lobby Cases Are Much Bigger Than Birth Control

Seth D. Michaels – March 27, 2014, 6:00 AM EDT2584

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments over the ACA’s provision requiring contraceptives like Plan B to be covered as a basic part of health plans.

The implications of this decision for women’s health are huge. Contraception is health care, as surely as any other kind of medicine is, but this decision would put that decision in the hands of bosses rather than the women whose decision it should be. And the strategy on the right tomake it seem like a debate about abortion distorts the facts even further--though it apparently is working on Justice Anthony Kennedy.

It’s obviously also an attempt by the case’s conservative backers to undermine the ACA and limit its reach -- a political tactic made apparent by the fact that Hobby Lobby covered the contraceptive options it’s now suing over.