A group of three male lawyers who serve as the sole employees of a nonreligious, anti-abortion organization failed in a bid to have their company fall under an exemption of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate.

U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III of the Middle District of Pennsylvania rejected Real Alternatives' argument that the contraceptive mandate violates the company's Fifth Amendment equal protection rights.

Real Alternatives is a nonprofit, nonreligious, anti-abortion group that provides “life-affirming” alternatives to abortion services. The nonprofit argued the Affordable Care Act exemption to the contraceptive mandate for religious employers made an unconstitutional distinction between employers that object to contraceptive coverage for religious reasons and those that do so on moral or philosophical grounds.