A. Barton Hinkle on Employer Choice and Contraception Mandates

The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—Obamacare for short—forces employers to provide coverage for birth control, writes A. Barton Hinkle. After outraged Catholics erupted in protest last year, the Obama administration offered a compromise—of sorts—exempting certain religious institutions, at least on paper if not in practice. Virginia delegate Bob Marshall (R-Prince William) proposes to expand the exemption by letting most employers opt out of the contraception requirements.

Naturally, this has provoked groups such as Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia—whose director, Cianti Stewart-Reid, thinks "politicians should stay out of women's health."