Report: White House Drafts Rule Allowing Religious Employers To Deny Birth Control Coverage

Democrats say that access to preventative services through insurance has benefitted over 50 million women.

May 29, 2017
Report: White House Drafts Rule Allowing Religious Employers To Deny Birth Control Coverage Trump on May 4 at the signing of an executive order on "Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty."  

The New York Times reported on Monday that the White House has drafted a rule that would allow religious employers to once again decide whether or not to cover birth control as a part of their employees's health insurance. The Affordable Care Act currently requires that employment-based group health care plans provide certain kinds of preventative care.

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President Trump signed an executive order earlier in May wherein he required three cabinet departments to “address conscience-based objections to the preventive-care mandate.” The executive order specifically cites a section in the Affordable Care Act that deals with female preventative services.

The rule is currently being reviewed by the White House Office of Management and Budget as an "interim final rule," which means that it could become effective as soon as it is published in the Federal Register.

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The Times notes that when agencies issue interim final rules, there is usually a period of time where the agency hears from the public and revises the rule with those comments in consideration.

In a letter to White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, 14 Democratic senators wrote that, “Women saved more than $1.4 billion in out-of-pocket costs for birth control in 2013 alone,” and that access to preventative services like birth control "is a critical part of women’s health care.”

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Report: White House Drafts Rule Allowing Religious Employers To Deny Birth Control Coverage