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In this moment, the future of our rights, our bodily autonomy, our freedom feels uncertain. What we do next will make a difference for decades to come.
NWLC Fights Final Trump-Pence Administration Birth Control Rules, Files Briefs in Court Explaining Their Harmful Impact
NWLC is fighting back against the Trump-Pence Administration’s efforts to take away our birth control coverage. Yesterday, along with our partners the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, and SisterLove, Inc., and our counsel Lowenstein Sandler LLP, we filed “amicus” – or “friend of the court” – briefs in federal courts in California and Pennsylvania to support the efforts of a coalition of states to block the harmful final Trump-Pence birth control rules. These rules would allow virtually any employer or university to refuse to provide insurance coverage of birth control to employees and students, which they are otherwise required to do by the Affordable Care Act.
Without action by either of these courts, the Trump-Pence birth control rules will take effect on January 14 and totally gut the ACA birth control benefit. The briefs filed by NWLC and its partners – and signed by 40 other organizations – describe the devastating impact the rules would have on people of color, young people, trans folks, and others who already face multiple and intersecting barriers to health care and economic advancement. And the briefs also attack the faulty assumptions and misleading data the Administration has put forward as justification for the rules, citing research showing that the Administration’s claims are false and put peoples’ health and livelihoods at risk. The courts in Pennsylvania and California have scheduled hearings later this week to determine whether to block these rules before they go into effect on January 14. I am optimistic that they will.
Thanks to the ACA, 62.8 million women nationwide now have coverage of birth control with no out-of-pocket costs. But the Trump-Pence administration is doing all it can to interfere with our birth control and our decisions about our bodies. NWLC and its amici partners have exposed exactly what is at stake if the final rules are permitted to go into effect: the health, freedom, equality, and livelihoods of all people who can become pregnant, especially those who already face discrimination and barriers to care. These rules are dangerous and unlawful, and must be prevented from taking effect.
