But what to do those guys think?
With the Supreme Court mulling over whether to allow employers to dictate what health care their employees—particularly those employees with lady parts—should be allowed to have, pollsters have been gauging public opinion on the issue. Last week,
a poll reported in the
Journal of the American Medical Association pegged support for employers having to provide insurance with contraceptive coverage at 69 percent. The Kaiser Family Foundation
asked the question in their April survey, and found similar results.
In light of the recent Supreme Court hearings in two cases challenging the ACA’s requirement that private health plans cover prescription birth control without cost-sharing, the latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds that, in general, the public supports the requirement by a nearly 2-to-1 margin (61 percent support, 32 percent oppose). Women, younger adults, Democrats and independents are the groups most likely to support the requirement, while seniors are split on the question and a majority of Republicans are opposed.
Asked more specifically about whether for-profit companies whose owners have religious objections to birth control should be subject to the requirement, a majority (55 percent) of the public feel these companies should be required to cover birth control even if it violates their owners’ personal religious beliefs, while four in ten feel such companies should not be subject to the requirement even if it means their workers will have to pay out-of-pocket for birth control.
The owners of Hobby Lobby and their legion of Republican and far-right supporters are obviously way out of the mainstream of public opinion. Unfortunately, so have been the men on the Supreme Court in many recent rulings. Let's just hope that at least one of them (looking at you, Justice Kennedy) is paying a bit of attention to what America thinks on this one.