The Supreme Court has heard arguments in two key cases about an employee’s right to birth control under the Affordable Care Act. The law exempts religious nonprofits from providing insurance that covers contraception. But two for-profit companies, Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood, say they should also be exempt due to religious beliefs. At stake is not only the issue of contraception, but the question of whether corporations can lay claim to religious rights. Both sides of the debate rallied outside Tuesday’s session. Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood praised the Supreme Court’s three women — Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg — for questioning the corporations’ claim to a religious exemption.

Cecile Richards: “What I think we saw today in the court was the importance of having women on the Supreme Court. And I was so proud to be there as a woman who cares about women’s health, to have the justices talk about the fact that what’s at stake in this case is whether millions of women and their right to preventive care, including birth control, is trumped by a handful of CEOs who have their own personal opinions about birth control.”

A ruling on the case is expected at the end of the Supreme Court’s term in June.