Biden administration abandons effort to expand birth control access

The Biden-Harris administration has withdrawn its proposed plan to expand access to birth control as the end of Biden’s presidential term looms.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Monday in a Federal Register notice that it is withdrawing its proposed regulations “to focus their time and resources on matters other than finalizing these rules” during Biden’s last weeks in office.

The plan, first proposed in January 2023, involved reversing a Trump-era policy that gave employers the ability to cite “non-religious moral objections” to the Affordable Care Act’s birth control coverage requirement. It’s the same mandate that tried to force the Little Sisters of the Poor to pay for their employee’s abortions, according to the Becket law firm.

At the time, the director of the HHS Office of Civil Rights, Roger Severino, said, “This provides an exemption, and it’s a limited one. We should have space for organizations to live out their religious identity and not face discrimination.”

The Biden administration proposal aimed to remove that “moral” exemption created by the Trump administration while keeping the “religious” exemption intact. However, it would have created an “independent pathway” for employees of employers with a religious exemption to still be able to access birth control at no cost through a “willing contraceptive provider.”

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At the time, HHS said, “Ensuring access to contraception at no cost is a national public health imperative,” citing the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing states to enact pro-life laws protecting preborn children from abortion.

“Now more than ever, access to and coverage of birth control is critical as the Biden-Harris Administration works to help ensure women everywhere can get the contraception they need, when they need it,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra in 2023.

If the proposed rule had been finalized, it would have forced employers to cover birth control despite their moral objections.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty celebrated the withdrawal of the proposed rule, saying, “Christmas came a little early this year.”

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