While Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialities carried the day at the Supreme Court, it remains to be seen how the companies’ position will fare in the court of public opinion.
Prior to the June 30 ruling, a number of polls found majority support for the health law’s requirement that private health plans cover the full cost of birth control.
For example, the Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, released in April, found “the public supports the requirement by a nearly 2-to-1 margin (61 percent support, 32 percent oppose).”
Kaiser also asked specifically whether for-profit companies whose owners have objections to birth control should be subject to the mandate. Fifty-five percent said yes, “even if it violates their owners’ personal religious beliefs.” Forty percent said for-profit companies “should NOT be required to cover birth control in their works’ health plans, even if it violates their owners’ personal religious beliefs.”