ST. JOSEPH — A Minnesota employer has won a religious exemption to the federal mandate requiring birth control coverage in workplace health insurance.

American Manufacturing Company of St. Joseph received the exemption based on the fact that owner Gregory Hall is an ordained Catholic deacon in Texas who opposes the types of birth control and sterilization specified in the Affordable Care Act. The law would have required the firm’s insurance to fully cover those procedures for its approximately 40 employees, the Star Tribune reported.

“I hope that the results … will encourage others to follow the dictates of their religious beliefs and stand up and assert their fundamental and legal rights,” Hall said in a statement released by his St. Cloud-based law firm.

Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Hobby Lobby chain and other closely held private businesses with religious objections could opt out of the birth control mandate.