Trump is now undoing another stupid Obama mandate, the infamous birth control mandate where Obama forced employers and insurance companies to cover birth control for ‘free’:
BREAKING: The Trump administration will let more employers opt out of providing no-cost birth control for religious, moral reasons.
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 6, 2017
JUST IN: Trump administration rolls back Obama-era birth control mandate, expands religious exemptions to the rule pic.twitter.com/BJYweyNQAC
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 6, 2017
#BREAKING Trump administration offers broad leeway to employers to drop birth control coverage https://t.co/6KrFz3DmVs
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) October 6, 2017
Here’s more:
USA TODAY – The Trump administration is expanding the religious exemption for employers that don’t want to provide insurance coverage for certain birth control methods because they have moral objections under rules announced Friday.
The Affordable Care Act required all employers to cover birth control for their workers without any co-payment, but the provision has been embroiled in lawsuits ever since.
The new rules allow any employer or insurer to stop covering contraceptive services if they have religious beliefs or moral convictions against covering birth control. It would be up to states to determine how companies should make these decisions.
Senior Health and Human Services officials said only a small fraction of women who get birth control without cost from their employers will be affected, as some large companies, including Pepsi and Exxon, had pre-ACA plans that will continue. Some church groups were already exempt from the law and not providing this coverage. The officials requested anonymity during a Friday call with reporters.
And of course…
The National Women’s Law Center immediately vowed to sue the Trump administration to block the rules, which CEO Fatima Goss Graves said showed “callous disregard for women’s rights, health and autonomy.”
I’m glad Trump is finally undoing this. It was dumb in the first place, as birth control is readily available and not very expensive. But even more so, to force employers who disagree with birth control on religious grounds to purchase insurance that covers this is abominable.
Kudos to Trump and his team for making this happen.