On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services finalized two rules that would allow employers to opt out of the Affordable Care Act's birth control mandate. In addition, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a rule that would result in burdensome regulations designed to push abortion coverage out of reach for at least 1.3 million women.
The changes to health care coverage for birth control and abortion coverage will make it more difficult – and, in some cases, impossible – for women to access contraception or make decisions about their own reproductive health.
When these changes were first proposed in October 2017, DeGette, Lowey, former Pro-Choice Caucus Co-Chair Louise Slaughter and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi led more than 180 of their colleagues in a letter to Trump administration officials opposing the rules, warning that these changes would restrict access to birth control for millions of women covered under the Affordable Care Act. Federal courts in Pennsylvania and California blocked the interim rules last year, but the Trump administration has continued to work to make them permanent.