Freedom of religion untrampled: Opposing view

• Exemption protects 350%2C000 churches and houses of worship.
• Women use birth control for medical reasons%2C including cramps%2C acne and infertility.
• 27 million women now have access to preventive care without a co-pay%2C including cancer screenings and birth control.

The Obama administration has struck the right balance between religious liberty and the right to affordable health care with the Affordable Care Act's birth control benefit.

It includes an expansive religious exemption, allowing approximately 350,000 churches and houses of worship to refuse to provide this benefit to their employees. Exempting this number of organizations from providing a health care benefit is nearly unheard of.

No one's freedom to practice religion is compromised, and women who work for religious organizations are still able to get access to birth control. Churches and other houses of worship are already exempt. Religious groups, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, are able to opt out of providing birth control, and they have been all along.

The only thing the Little Sisters must do is fill out a one-page form stating that it objects to providing contraception, and send the form to its insurer.

The decision to include no co-pay coverage of birth control methods was deeply rooted in the best medical research. It was at the recommendation of the non-partisan Institute of Medicine, and recognizes that birth control is used at some point by more than 99% of all sexually active women in this country.

This benefit enables women to control their reproductive health, plan their pregnancies and manage their lives. Women use birth control for a variety of medical reasons, including relief of cramps, acne and endometriosis, a leading cause of infertility.

Today, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 27 million women have access to preventive care without a co-pay, including cancer screenings and birth control.

The birth control benefit under the law does not breach anyone's religious freedom. The administration is doing the right thing to ensure that all women, regardless of their employer's religious beliefs, get equal access to health care.

Meanwhile, the administration is bending over backward to ensure that religious organizations are able to exercise their constitutional right of freedom of religion. The real issues on the table are health care, financial security and basic fairness for women.

The White House declined to provide an opposing view.Cecile Richards is president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.