A year after the Trump Administration tried to pass controversial exemptions to birth control coverage, the administration seems to be trying again.
Samantha Schmidt of The Washington Post writes: “The birth control rules are part of a broader effort by conservatives inside and outside of the White House to prioritize what they call religious liberty.” These new regulations, which are expected to be released soon, would expand religious and moral exemptions for covering birth control in employer health insurance plans and would not require employers to provide any accommodations to employees still seeking birth control. Women’s health care advocates and prominent medical groups have already spoken out against an older version of the regulations that was blocked by several federal judges. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is one of many
arguing that the regulations would violate the First Amendment. According to Schmidt, Becerra believes “that the birth control regulations would cause employers to use religious beliefs as a right to discriminate against employees in denying them coverage entitled to them in the Affordable Care Act.”
A 2018 PRRI surveyfinds that Americans broadly believe employers ought to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception or birth control at no cost, whether they are publicly held corporations (66 percent), privately owned corporations (61 percent), religiously-affiliated hospitals (59 percent), religiously affiliated colleges and universities (54 percent), or privately owned small businesses (53 percent).