A federal judge ruled Monday that employers need not cite religious objections to escape the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's contraception mandates.

The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon, an appointee of President George W. Bush, came in response to a suit brought by March for Life, an anti-abortion advocacy group. Leon argued in his decision that only exempting employers that cited religious objections was a violation of the 14th amendment's guarantee of equal protection under the law.

Like many of the religious groups that have objected to the contraception mandate, March for Life opposes certain forms of contraception that it believes are equivalent to abortion, such as the morning-after pill and intrauterine devices.

However, the organization is not attached to any religious organization, and argued that its objections to providing certain types of birth control were secular.

“March for Life has been excised from the fold because it is not ‘religious,’ Leon wrote. “This is nothing short of regulatory favoritism.”

The government will likely appeal the decision, which threatens a major setback to the PPACA provision that currently requires almost all employers to provide contraception to female workers without any co-pay.

Recently, Wheaton College, a Christian institution in the Chicago area, announced it would drop health insurance for students because it opposed having to present its religious objections to the federal government to obtain the exemption. Other religious organizations are challenging the administrative review process set up for the exemptions. Sixteen states have filed briefs in support of the groups.

Instant Insights /

Religious objections not required for contraception exemption

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