Pols React to Supreme Court Ruling

Justices of the Supreme Court

Releases received at WHAV Monday offer some local reaction to Monday’s decision by the Supreme Court of the United States to exempt retailer Hobby Lobby from offering women’s contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act based on religious beliefs.

The Supreme Court, for the first time, ruled corporations may have religious beliefs.

Maura Healey, candidate for Massachusetts attorney general, is calling for immediate action to make sure women and families in Massachusetts do not lose access to the health care and coverage they need. She calls the court’s decision in Hobby Lobby “a betrayal of women that comes right on the heels of its misguided decision striking down the Massachusetts buffer zone.”

Meanwhile, Massachusetts democratic gubernatorial candidate and State Treasurer Steve Grossman has released a statement calling the court’s decisionregarding the right of all women to receive a full range of contraceptive services profoundly disturbing. Grossman said, “Health care is a human right, and employers should not be able to get in the way of a woman’s access to affordable birth control. Decisions about reproductive health care ought to be made between a patient and her physician, free from political interference.”