1/14/19
A federal judge on Sunday granted a request by more than a dozen states to temporarily block the Trump administration from putting into effect new rules that would make it easier for employers to deny women health insurance coverage for contraceptives.
Contraception is covered by the Affordable Care Act as a preventive health service, something employers and insurers are generally required to provide at no charge. But the Trump administration developed rules to allow employers to opt out of the mandate if they had religious or moral objections. A version of those rules was stymied by the courts in 2017, so the administration issued a new set of rules in November, which had been scheduled to take effect on Monday. However, the judge, Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. of the United States District Court in Oakland, Calif., granted a request by 13 states and the District of Columbia for a preliminary injunction, writing that the new rules “are nearly identical to” the ones that he had previously blocked. The plaintiffs, he wrote, had done enough to bolster their claim that the religious exemption and the moral exemption sought by the Trump administration were “not in accordance with” the Affordable Care Act.
States had also argued they would suffer economic harm as a result of the rules because they would have had to provide contraceptive coverage or pay for medical treatment and social services for more women with unintended pregnancies. Judge Gilliam agreed, writing they had “shown that they are likely to suffer irreparable harm as a result of this violation, that the balance of hardships tips sharply in their favor, and that the public interest favors granting the injunction.” In a statement, Xavier Becerra, the attorney general of California, which is listed as the lead plaintiff in the case, said: “The law couldn’t be clearer — employers have no business interfering in women’s health care decisions.” “Today’s court ruling stops another attempt by the Trump administration to trample on women’s access to basic reproductive care,” he said. “It’s 2019, yet the Trump administration is still trying to roll back women’s rights. Our coalition will continue to fight to ensure women have access to the reproductive health care they are guaranteed under the law.” Because of the injunction Judge Gilliam ordered on Sunday, none of those states will need to comply with the Trump administration’s expanded exemptions until the case is resolved.
