If your boss suddenly decided he had a moral objection to your health insurance plan covering cholesterol medication—and had the power to act on his objection—it would be outrageous invasion of your privacy and the doctor-patient relationship. It's the kind of thing that no politician would ever want to see happen, unless that politician were a Republican, and instead of needing cholesterol medication, you needed birth control coverage.
Obamacare bans this sort of meddling from all business owners and nearly all private employers. The only exception is for certain religious institutions, but 13 state attorneys general—all Republicans—say that exception isn't enough. They want private employers with "moral objections" to be granted the same exception.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is the latest to join the list:
DeWine said last night that requiring business owners to include prescriptions such as the morning-after pill, which critics say are abortive, as an employee insurance benefit could be a “direct contradiction” to the religious beliefs of some employers.
“They’re being forced to provide insurance coverage that violates their religious beliefs,” DeWine said. “They’re being forced to provide insurance coverage for a form of abortion. To me, it’s a religious-freedom issue.”
Uh, as Steve Benen
points out, birth control isn't abortion. In fact, it prevents pregnancies, thereby reducing abortions. And the fact that DeWine tries to confuse the two highlights the fact that the issue for social conservatives isn't actually contraception or even abortion: It's about controlling women and regulating their reproductive lives.