Guide to Suits Challenging ACA’s Contraception Coverage Requirements

Even with so much attention focused on the Oct. 1 launch of the health law's state insurance exchanges, one of the Affordable Care Act's most controversial elements is still percolating through the nation's legal system. The Department of Health and Human Services regulation requiring that many companies -- including religious ones -- with more than 50 employees provide health insurance coverage for birth control, the "Plan B" pill and other forms of contraception for women is still being actively disputed in federal courts. There have been dozens of pending and dropped challenges -- the  National Women's Law Center counts 77 and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is tracking 67 -- in which for-profit and nonprofit organizations maintain the requirement is counter to their personal or institutional religious views.