With the Supreme Court poised to hand down a ruling in the Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. and Conestoga Wood Specialties cases, PRRI’s latest Graphic of the Week explores Americans’ views about the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate for certain types of businesses, including privately owned corporations. The graphic is based on findings from our  May 2014 Religion & Politics Tracking Survey.

A majority of Americans believe that most types of businesses—with the exception of churches and places of worship—should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception at no cost. However, public sentiment varies significantly depending on the type of business. Roughly 6-in-10 Americans believe that publicly held corporations (61 percent) and privately owned corporations (57 percent) should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception at no cost. However, only a slim majority (51 percent) say privately owned small businesses should also have to meet this requirement. Nearly half (46 percent) of Americans oppose this requirement for privately owned small businesses.

Americans also differentiate between religiously affiliated institutions and places of worship. A majority of Americans say religiously affiliated hospitals (56 percent) and religiously affiliated colleges and universities (52 percent) should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception at no cost. However, only about 4-in-10 (42 percent) Americans say churches and other places of worship should be required to provide employees with health care plans that cover contraception. A majority (53 percent) oppose the requirement for churches.

With the exception of white evangelical Protestants, a majority of all religious groups say privately owned corporations should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception. Seven-in-ten (70 percent) of the religiously unaffiliated, 64 percent of white mainline Protestants, 59 percent of minority Protestants and 54 percent of Catholics support the requirement, compared to only 4-in-10 (40 percent) white evangelical Protestants.

Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of Democrats and more than half (56 percent) of independents say privately owned corporations should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception, compared to just a third (33 percent) of Republicans. Younger Americans are more likely to favor the requirement with 57 percent of young adults saying it should be required. Older Americans are split, with 49 percent saying it should be required while 48 percent say it should not be required.

To read additional survey findings, click here.

To see the Graphic of the Week, click here.