Last Friday the US Department of Health and Human Services issued new rules that vastly expand exemptions for those that cite moral or religious objections to birth control coverage. CNN reports that the rules would let a broad range of employers — including nonprofits, private firms and publicly traded companies — stop offering contraceptives through their health insurance plans if they have a "sincerely held religious or moral objection," senior agency officials said on a call about the implementation and enforcement of the new rules.
Under the new rules, which take effect immediately, any employer, including publicly traded companies and even universities, can claim a religious objection to providing birth control to employees. The Trump administration claims the twin executive orders "protect religious liberty." This is religious liberty run amok, contends Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). Religious liberty does not mean the freedom to force your dogma upon unwilling employees who themselves do not share these scruples.
More than 55 million women have access to birth control without co-payments because of the contraceptive coverage mandate, according to a study commissioned by the Obama administration. The new rules continue the undermining of the Obamacare mandate that requires birth control be covered with no co-pay as a preventive service.
One new rule offers an exemption to any employer or insurer that objects to covering contraceptive services “based on its sincerely held religious beliefs.” "As it has for millennia, religion is being used to oppress women," notes FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "Employers have no business sticking their noses into intimate health decisions by women workers. It's outrageous." FFRF Co-President Dan Barker also pointed out the absurdity of claiming “that a company can have a religious belief.” Another regulation offers a new exemption to employers that have “moral convictions” against covering contraceptives.
There is no way to satisfy all of the religious objections to the contraceptive coverage mandate, so “it is necessary and appropriate to provide the expanded exemptions,” the Trump administration says in the new rules.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State announced plans to sue the Trump administration to block the new regulations allowing employers to refuse to cover birth control as part of their health insurance plans. “Religious freedom is about fairness — it does not give anyone the right to deny women access to birth control. The Trump administration’s regulations violate the First Amendment and are a huge step backward for women’s health and equality,” said Maggie Garrett, Americans United’s legislative director.
Photo Credits: Huffington Post
