The White House weighed in Tuesday after the Supreme Court announced it will hear cases on the constitutionality of Obamacare’s birth control mandate.
Spokesman Jay Carney called the requirement “lawful and essential to women’s health” and said the White House is “confident the Supreme Court will agree.”
Carney declined to comment on the specifics of the cases but said President Barack Obama “believes that no one, including the government or for-profit corporations, should be able to dictate” health care decisions to women.
Read Carney’s full statement:
The health care law puts women and families in control of their health care by covering vital preventive care, like cancer screenings and birth control, free of charge. Earlier this year, the Obama Administration asked the Supreme Court to consider a legal challenge to the health care law’s requirement that for-profit corporations include birth control coverage in insurance available to their employees. We believe this requirement is lawful and essential to women’s health and are confident the Supreme Court will agree.
We do not comment on specifics of a case pending before the Court. As a general matter, our policy is designed to ensure that health care decisions are made between a woman and her doctor. The President believes that no one, including the government or for-profit corporations, should be able to dictate those decisions to women. The Administration has already acted to ensure no church or similar religious institution will be forced to provide contraception coverage and has made a commonsense accommodation for non-profit religious organizations that object to contraception on religious grounds. These steps protect both women’s health and religious beliefs, and seek to ensure that women and families–not their bosses or corporate CEOs–can make personal health decisions based on their needs and their budgets.
