The United States Supreme Court said today closely-held corporations can exercise religious objections to women's reproductive choices under the government's health care law, the Affordable Care Act.

The 5-4 decision is the first time religious exceptions can be applied to corporations using the federal law Religious Freedom Restoration Act above the health care law.

The court said the ruling only applies to corporations that are closely held.

All three female justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, dissented on the decision.

In his majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito said the decision is limited to contraceptives under the health care law. He said, "Our decision should not be understood to hold that an insurance-coverage mandate must necessarily fall if it conflicts with an employer's religious beliefs."

Under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, contraception was included as services that must be provided at no extra charge to employees.

The president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Celia Richards, said in response to the decision in a teleconference, "Today, the Supreme Court handed down a stunning ruling that gives CEOs of some for-profit corporations the right to deny their employees coverage for birth control based on CEO's personal objections. It is hard to imagine that in 2014, in the United States, there are judges and politicians who object to women's ability to access birth control. This decision allows CEOs to exercise their own prejudices and views, despite the fact that those views are neither supported by science nor medicine."

Richards said while the ruling doesn't strike down the Affordable Care Act's birth control benefit, available for more than 30 million women, it will still affect many women.

She added," This decision — by five male judges — sets a dangerous new precedent, allowing corporations to interfere in the private health decisions of their employees, who happen to all be women — and it is women who will pay the price. ... [W]e urge members of Congress and in state legislatures to stand up for women's health and rights..."

According to Planned Parenthood, a 2010 survey found that more than a third of female voters have struggled to afford prescription birth control at some point in their lives, and as a result, used birth control inconsistently.

The case, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, combined lawsuits filed by two religious families and their businesses. In one of the cases, the Green family owns Hobby Lobby Stores, a big box craft chain, and the Christian bookstore chain Marde and employs 15,000 people. The Green family objected to their employees' health plan covering certain forms of contraception — two forms of morning after pills, Plan B and ella, and two intrauterine devices (IUDs). The families believes human life begins at conception and if their corporations were to cover those four forms of birth control they would be complicit in abortion, according to SCOTUS blog.

The other case involved the Hahn family which owns a cabinet company, Conestoga Wood Specialties, employing 950 people. Their lawsuit argued that the contraception mandate violated their religious rights under the First Amendment.

Both families argued that the birth control mandate violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), a 1993 law which said the government cannot impose a substantial burden on the exercise of religion unless that burden uses the narrowest possible way to promote a very important interest of the government.

Nearly 50 companies have sued over the contraceptive provision, and there are separate lawsuits pending from religiously affiliated hospitals, college and charities.

Marcia D. Greenberg, president of the National Women's Law Center said, "This decision is a bitter pill for women to swallow."