Trump’s ‘Religious Liberty’ Order Threatens Women’s Health, Experts Say
“We are giving our churches their voices back,” Trump said.
But the executive order also contains a provision directing federal agencies to exempt religiously affiliated employers from having to provide birth control coverage through their insurance plans offered to their employees.
This exemption stands in direct opposition to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known colloquially as Obamacare, which mandates that all insurance plans must include coverage for contraception as an essential health benefit. The Obama administration had also issued a rule providing a way for religious institutions to be exempt from providing contraception coverage themselves, while still not denying their employees the ability to access this coverage.
The Trump-issued executive order not only does away with all that — the exemption for employers and guarantee of coverage for employees of religiously owned institutions — it potentially takes things even further. In response to today’s executive order, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Tom Price has issued a statement saying that the order will prompt HHS to “reexamine the previous administration’s interpretation of the Affordable Care Act’s preventive services mandate.” Price also stated that “[r]eligious liberty is our country’s first freedom” and “commend[ed] President Trump for taking a strong stand for religious liberty.”
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