Legal Battle Brewing As Trump's HHS Prepares To Ax Free Birth Control Rule
Source: Talking Points Memo
By ALICE OLLSTEIN Published AUGUST 21, 2017 6:00 AM
The Trump administration is preparing to roll back the Obama-era free birth control mandate, a move legal groups say would be unconstitutional and subject to a court challenge.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the rule will be very similar to a draft version leaked in May, which would vastly expand the number and types of businesses eligible for an exemption from Obamacare’s rule requiring all employers to provide insurance coverage of all contraceptive methods without co-pays. If enacted as drafted, it would allow not only religious groups but thousands of non-profits and for-profit businesses to leave birth control out of their employees’ insurance altogether.
Lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union, National Women’s Law Center and other groups say such a rule would violate government process rules, gender discrimination laws, the separation of church and state.
A key provision of the Affordable Care Act made more than a dozen preventative care services available free of charge for people covered by health insurance—from primary care checkups to vaccines to diabetes screenings. The only service targeted by the Trump rule change is coverage of contraception.
“This raises a couple of constitutional issues, including sex discrimination, because they’re singling out care that only women need,” explained Brigitte Amiri, a staff attorney with the ACLU. “They are not targeting other kinds of preventative care, and they’re taking away a benefit that’s otherwise guaranteed by law. Additionally, they’re targeting something, contraception, that allows women to achieve equality in society.”
Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/trump-birth-control-rule-hhs
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