On October 6, the Trump Administration released new rules that would allow employers to seek an exemption, for religious or moral reasons, to the Obamacare provision requiring insurance plans to cover contraception.
According to a study commissioned by the Obama Administration, 55 million women now have access to free birth control because of the contraceptive coverage mandate. That provision has been the subject of more than five years of litigation, however. In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that nonreligious anti-abortion groups must comply with the mandate. The court sided with the Federal Government in a suit brought by Real Alternatives, a nonprofit organization that opposes abortion and provides abortion counseling and abstinence education.
The attorneys general of Massachusetts and California have filed lawsuits to block the new rules, and the American Civil Liberties Union recently announced plans to do so on behalf of Employee International Union–United Health Care Workers West, arguing that taking away contraceptive coverage is unconstitutional because it discriminates against women.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (WI-R) hailed the Administration’s move as “a landmark day for religious liberty.” Representative Diane Black (TN-R) called it “a resounding victory for true-believing Americans” that would end the “persecution of ordinary Americans who for years have been seeking only the freedom to live in accordance with their faith, free from government interference.”
Meanwhile, Democrats were quick to criticize the rules. Senator Ron Wyden (OR-D), Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Finance Committee, said,
“The Administration is now stooping to a new low by attempting to deny women the preventive health care coverage they need, There’s no ‘exemption’ from having reproductive organs. This Administration needs to end its obsession with attacking women’s rights to receive the health care they deserve.”
The Department of Health and Human Services responded that most women who are currently covered by the mandate will not be affected because their employers will not seek exemptions.
For more on this topic, see the May 2016 issue of Supreme Court Debates on “Contraception Under Obamacare” and the April 2012 issue of Congressional Digest on “Mandated Contraceptive Coverage.”
