On October 6, 2017, Trump rolled back the birth control mandate made under the Affordable Care Act, meaning that employers can deny any and all insurance coverage for birth control under the company’s right to religious freedom, effective immediately.
This roll back comes after Trump signed an Executive order in May to “to protect and vigorously promote religious liberty”
According to the LA Times “The new policy applies to any employer claiming a religious or moral objection to offering contraceptive coverage, including even publicly traded for-profit corporations with no evident religious or moral character. Those claiming moral scruples won’t have to prove or validate them in any way.”
This roll back will affect thousands of women across the country, who will now have to pay birth control out of pocket. According to the New York Times “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.” Although officials from the Department of Health and Human Services stated that their would be absolutely no impact on “99.9% of women” but, according to CNN “It is basing that percentage on the 165-million women in America, many of whom are not in their childbearing years.”
Republican lawmakers and religious organizations praise this new law, while democrats and other liberal organizations call it an attack on women’s rights. Planned Parenthood has called this new order “unacceptable” stating that the mandate benefited “62.4 million women” and saved women “$1.4 billion in just one year.” The ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the roll back, as well as “The attorney general of Massachusetts, Maura Healey, and the attorney general of California, Xavier Becerra” according to the New York Times.
Trumps Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, on Friday, stated that “this is a president who supports the first amendment, supports the freedom of religion. I don’t understand why that should be an issue” and “the president is somebody who believes in the constitution. If people don’t like what it says, they should talk to congress about changing it.”
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