{"id":172963,"date":"2017-10-07T13:36:01","date_gmt":"2017-10-07T17:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=172963"},"modified":"2017-10-08T10:49:29","modified_gmt":"2017-10-08T14:49:29","slug":"president-trump-rolls-back-contraceptive-mandate-allows-employers-to-follow-consciences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/president-trump-rolls-back-contraceptive-mandate-allows-employers-to-follow-consciences\/","title":{"rendered":"President Trump rolls back contraceptive mandate, allows employers to follow consciences"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On Friday morning, President Donald Trump rolled back the Health & Human Services Contraception mandate, a highly controversial provision of the Affordable Care Act. The mandate required employers to provide all forms of contraception to their employees, including sterilization and potential abortifacients. While the Obama administration did tout exemptions for religious organizations, the exemptions were so narrow they amounted to very little. Trump\u2019s decision to lift the mandates comes after several years of legal battles.<\/p>\n

Lawsuits have had mixed results. In 2014, Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Woods were victorious at the U.S. Supreme Court<\/a>, and thus protected from covering abortifacients<\/a>\u00a0to which they objected. Last year\u2019s divided court decision, however, handed back a case to the divided lower courts regarding whether religious groups, including Little Sisters of the Poor and Priests for Life<\/a>, could be exempt from involvement with insurers and administrators who would be involved in covering their employees. Courts also found that<\/a> secular groups could not claim exemptions from the mandate.<\/p>\n

This rollback decision now allows employers to follow their consciences about whether or not to provide certain types of contraception. It does not affect the legality of contraception, nor does it forbid employers from providing it, should they wish to do so.<\/p>\n

Opponents of the Trump Administration’s decision have claimed that women will now be denied health care, but 1) these same opponents would call abortion<\/a> healthcare (and the objectionable contraception is potentially abortifacient), and 2) contraception has not been banned or even restricted.<\/p>\n

Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action, responded to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Twitter after Pelosi made the spurious claim about denying women healthcare:<\/p>\n

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Abortifacient drugs are the antithesis of “healthcare.” Medicine is meant to heal, not kill. https:\/\/t.co\/Xx2XKP3TYp<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) October 6, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n