A federal judge Monday temporarily blocked President Trump’s push to exempt a range of companies and religious nonprofits from an Obama-era mandate to insure birth control or submit their objections in writing.
The preliminary injunction from U.S. District Court Judge Wendy Beetlestone applies nationwide, making it broader in scope than a separate ruling Sunday that enjoined Mr. Trump’s rules in 13 states and D.C.
Democratic attorneys general in Pennsylvania and New Jersey had sued over Mr. Trump’s decision to let closely held businesses and religious nonprofits refuse to cover contraceptives by claiming “sincerely held” religious beliefs or a moral objection.
Judge Beetlestone sided with the states, saying if Mr. Trump’s exemption were enforced, “numerous citizens” could lose affordable birth control, forcing state-funded programs to pick up the tab for contraception or unplanned pregnancies.
She also said a nationwide injunction was warranted, citing people who work across state lines or students who attend school in one state while remaining on their parents’ employer-based plans back home.
“My office just won big,” tweeted Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro.
The injunctions from courts in Pennsylvania and California will prolong the messy legal fight over the mandate, which previously resulted in two showdowns before the Supreme Court.
While blue states are winning the fight for now, lawyers for objectors such as the Little Sister of the Poor — a group of nuns who care for the elderly — say the other side will fail to win before the Supreme Court, if they land there again.
“Their argument is that it’s illegal for the federal government to give the nuns a religious exemption,” said Mark Rienzi, senior counsel for Becket, a religious-liberty group representing the nuns. “Some of the states don’t even have their own contraception mandate.”
An outgrowth of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration ruled that most employers must provide insurance that provides for free — as “preventive care” — 18 types of FDA-approved contraceptives, including birth control pills and the morning-after pill.
Federal courts blocked Mr. Trump’s initial attempts to get around the mandate earlier this year, saying they were hastily written, so the administration finalized new rules in November.
Objectors would not be required to fill out on opt-form — a requirement that President Obama imposed, leading to dragged-out litigation that reached a deadlocked Supreme Court.
Today the court battles are coming from the other side, with liberal groups saying Mr. Trump has made it too easy for employers to deny coverage.
The Health and Human Services Department disagrees, saying it expects no more than 200 employers to come forward a claim the latest version of the exemption, which only requires firms to notify their workers if their health policy suddenly drops contraceptive coverage.
Hundreds of known objectors already have court-ordered protections in place, so the blue-state lawsuit amounts to an “attack” on those who are being shielded at the moment, according to Becket.
Mr. Rienzi accused Democratic attorneys general of posturing based on political winds, rather than making a sound argument.
“It’s cool to sue Donald Trump,” he said, referring to their mindset. “People score points with their based by saying, ’I am suing the president.’”
Becket says even if some new employers come forward, there are other ways for women to get contraceptives, including Title X funding or state programs.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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