Posted on 12/15/2017 3:09:09 PM PST by Morgana
Christian groups and businesses once again may be forced to pay for birth control, including forms that may cause abortions, after a federal judge ruled against the Trump administration Friday.
In October, President Donald Trump’s administration provided relief from the Obamacare birth control mandate by granting wider exceptions to religious groups.
The new rules provided relief to groups like the nuns of Little Sisters of the Poor and the religious owners of Hobby Lobby, which were forced to challenge the mandate to the U.S. Supreme Court or face crippling fines.
However, several state attorneys general challenged the decision.
On Friday, a challenge by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro succeeded when federal Judge Wendy Beetlestone blocked the Trump administration from enforcing the rule, according to the AP.
“The Commonwealth’s concern is that absent available cost-effective contraception, women will either forego contraception entirely or choose cheaper but less effective methods—individual choices which will result in an increase in untended pregnancies,” Beetlestone wrote. “That, in turn, will inflict economic harm on the Commonwealth because unintended pregnancies are more likely to impose additional costs on Pennsylvania’s State-funded health programs.”
Here’s more from the Washington Free Beacon:
Shapiro’s victory came after arguments in front of Judge Wendy Bettlestone Thursday, where the A.G. contended that the rollback would harm Pennsylvania’s 2.5 million women. Dr. Cynthia Chuang, of Penn State University, testified before Bettlestone that the rollback would cause “serious medical harm,” including unintended pregnancies, Courthouse News reports.
The government disagreed with this argument when, in October, Trump ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to allow for fairly broad-based religious and moral exemptions to the mandate.
… The administration expected in October that only a few organizations — as few as 200 — will take advantage of the expanded exceptions. A senior administration official said then that it was expected that 99.9 percent of women will be unimpacted by this new rule.
Shapiro described the ruling as a “critical victory for millions of women.”
However, earlier this fall, even Shapiro admitted that the HHS mandate under pro-abortion President Barack Obama was “extremely narrow.” It was so narrow that even a group of nuns, the Little Sisters of the Poor, had to fight the whole way to the U.S. Supreme Court for relief.
Other states that are suing Trump include California, Massachusetts and Washington, according to the AP.
The Trump administration says the new rules are motivated by “our desire to bring to a close the more than five years of litigation” over the pro-abortion mandate. These include cases by the Little Sister of the Poor, Hobby Lobby and countless other religious organizations and businesses.
The new rules argue that the Affordable Care Act does not mandate coverage of birth control, which could mean hundreds of thousands of women would no longer have access to the contraceptive without a copay.
According to TownHall, the new rules provide significantly expanded religious exemptions that the Obama administration refused to offer.
The report continued:
One of the new rules, according to the Times, provides an exemption to employers or insurers that object to covering birth control “based on its sincerely held religious beliefs,” while another rule gives an exemption to employers with “moral convictions” against covering birth control.
The new rules state that since all religious objections to the contraceptive coverage mandate cannot be satisfied, “it is necessary and appropriate to provide the expanded exemptions.”
The Trump administration also notes that there are other means of acquiring birth control.
“The government,” it says, “already engages in dozens of programs that subsidize contraception for the low-income women” who are most at risk of unplanned pregnancies.
Pro-life advocates applauded the new rules when they were first proposed in May.
“At long last, the United States government has acknowledged that people can get contraceptives without forcing nuns to provide them,” Mark Rienzi, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty told USA Today at the time. “That is sensible, fair, and in keeping with the president’s promise to the Little Sisters and other religious groups serving the poor.”
*#%#@ %(#@)@ %(@)@ @#(* #*(%)#% %I#)$)#
Okay..thanks now that I got that out of my system.
“VENGEANCE is Mine”, says the LORD.
Why do we need a president, we have judges
Make the judge enforce it.
Well, we elected a pro abortion senator in Alabama who can add to the slimming majority v minority balance and help reject Trump’s judges
Any doubt GOP and Fox News want abortion to continue?
Hannity had better figure out if he’s catholic or not. God will judge him accordingly.
They misspelled "President-Judge"...
Obama stooge. Surprise!
Another immigrant African, affirmative action appointed by another African born, and affirmative action confirmed by a Republican Congress
No surprises as to the incompetence of “Wendy” She just follows the pattern
Typical liberal judge. I cannot believe any one of 600 judges around the country has more power than the elected Chief Executive president to establish the execution of the laws of the USA.
Congress really needs to fix that. At most, a district judge should speak for his/her verdict, and that must be after approval from the Scotus justice responsible for that area.
This article never mentions it but this is only a temporary injunction.
It is time to stop acting like judges have the authority to overrule everyone and make their opinions the law of the land.
Why can't we just let the judges fight it out and have the civil war? Conservative judges are more likely to be packing (ie, Moore types) which helps the cause.
Why post this in religion. This is a graft and corruption in government issue and another out of control Judge.
Josh Shapiro
Wonder what religion he practices.
Trump can do an executive order to rule ObamaCare unconstitutional. Problem fixed.
Somebody must have said that name three times...
Judge Wendy
Is the government stating abortion is a form of contraception?
Then means Wendy is legislating from the bench.
Isn’t it enough that the left demands the right to kill their babies without making decent people pay for it?
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