WASHINGTON - In what could be another blow to President Obama's Affordable Health Care Act, the U.S. High Court on Monday ruled in favor of two companies that refused to pay for the contraceptives of their employees on religious grounds.

Crafts store chain Hobby Lobby and cabinet maker Conestoga Wood Specialties challenged a provision of the Health Care Act, or ObamaCare, that requires companies to give their employees health insurance that covers birth control.

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Both companies, which are owned by evangelical Christians, said they run their businesses in keeping with biblical principles.

They argued that contraceptives prevent embryos from implanting, which is tantamount to abortion, and that providing insurance for these birth control methods would make them complicit in the practice.

Voting 5-4, the justices ruled that employers have the right to opt out of contraceptives insurance coverage that violates their religious beliefs, essentially upholding their rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.

Employees of these companies can still avail of birth control insurance coverage from an outside provider but will not involve payments from their employers, said the decision penned by Justice Samuel Alito, a conservative.

The court's decision applies only to small for-profit corporations, but could set a precedent for some 49 other small companies that are seeking a similar exemption from the same provision of ObamaCare.

The case has been highly divisive, with the Supreme Court's liberal wing acceding to the government's argument presented by Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, Jr. that providing comprehensive insurance coverage, which includes birth control, would be greatly beneficial to women's health.

Shortly after the Supreme Court promulgated its decision, the White House warned that women's health has just been placed in serious jeopardy.

White House Spokesman Josh Earnest said they are now looking into the number of women that will be affected by the court ruling, and urged Congress to take immediate steps to assist those women.

Outside the Supreme Court Monday, a group of demonstrators had converged with pro-choice slogans written on their placards.

The demonstrators, most of them women's rights advocates, criticized the High Court's ruling which they said gave employers a right to decide over their private choices in life. 

TagsHobby Lobby, Conestoga Wood Specialties, Obamacare, birth control