The Trump administration filed two rules in the Federal Register Friday, immediately rolling back the ACA's birth control mandate, allowing employers to opt out of covering contraception as part of preventive health benefits based on religious belief or moral conviction.
The rules leave the Health Resources and Services Administration with the authority to continue to require entities to provide contraceptive coverage if they cannot prove an objection, however, the rules don't require companies to file notice of their exemption. Instead, they simply require companies to notify employees if they change their benefits and make it clear in all documentation of employee benefits that contraceptive services are not covered.
"The constitutional protection of religious beliefs and the right to exercise those beliefs have served this country well, have made us one of the most tolerant countries in the world, and have also helped make us the freest and most generous," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement Friday. "President [Donald] Trump promised that this administration would 'lead by example on religious liberty,' and he is delivering on that promise."
With more than 55 million women currently using birth control without a copayment under the mandate, The New York Times' Robert Pear estimates the new rules could reduce benefits for hundreds of thousands of women. This loss in coverage would effectively be "turning back the clock on women's health," according to Haywood Brown, MD, the president of The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
"Contraception is a medical necessity for women during approximately 30 years of their lives. It improves the health of women, children and families as well as communities overall; reduces maternal mortality; and enhances economic stability for women and their families," Dr. Brown said in a statement.
Though the rules are effective on their publish date of Oct. 6, they are open for comment from the public until Dec. 5.
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