The Supreme Court sounded "ready" to throw out the part of the Affordable Care Act that requires certain religious corporations to offer employees contraceptive coverage, according to a report in The Los Angeles Times.

The court's conservative justices were sharply critical of the provision in the law. The women j ustices, meanwhile — liberals Elena Kagan , Sonia Sotomayor, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg — defended the law, according to the Times.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, a swing voter with a libertarian bent, told U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, who defended the mandate, that his reasoning " would permit requiring profit-making corporations to pay for abortions."

The rule at stake under the health-care overhaul is a provision in the ACA that requires all new health insurance plans to pay for contraceptives. The issue is whether for-profit corporations — in this case, the lead plaintiff Hobby Lobby Inc. — can refuse to provide all or some contraceptive services.


LINK