Latest news with #WendyBeetlestone
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Federal judge blocks Trump administration's broad birth control mandate exemptions
The Trump administration's religious and moral carve-outs to an ObamaCare requirement that all employer health plans cover contraception at no cost were blocked on Wednesday by a federal judge. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone in Philadelphia issued a summary judgment that the rules were arbitrary, capricious and an overreach of the authority of the agencies that wrote them in 2017. Under the rules, essentially any for-profit or nonprofit employer or insurer was allowed to exempt themselves from following the birth control mandate on moral and religious grounds. The rules also let publicly traded companies obtain a religious exemption, but not a moral one. The Affordable Care Act required employer health plans to cover at least one of 18 forms of birth control approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Religious groups and employers sued, and the Supreme Court in 2014 ruled 5-4 that the contraceptive mandate violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) rights of closely held corporations whose owners had religious objections. Subsequent agency actions tried to find a balance, but the Trump administration in 2017 issued a blanket exemption. The rules didn't require employers to apply for an exemption because the administration said that would be a violation of their religious rights. Pennsylvania, New Jersey and dozens of other states sued to halt that broad expansion of exemptions and accommodations. That lawsuit reached the Supreme Court in 2020, where the justices upheld the Trump rules on technical grounds but did not address the underlying merits of the case. The case was sent back to the lower court, where a religious group, Little Sisters of the Poor, joined the lawsuit alongside the federal government in asking for summary judgment. Beetlestone, an appointee of former President Obama, wrote that the Trump administration's religious rule did not accomplish what the agencies purportedly wrote it to do, which was to resolve a conflict between the contraceptive mandate and RFRA. But the rule exemptions to organizations that are 'unlikely, if ever, to be capable of maintaining a religious objection, raising further doubts as to any 'rational connection' between the Rule and remedying potential conflicts with RFRA,' Beetlestone wrote. The Little Sisters of the Poor will appeal the ruling in the coming weeks, according to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit that represents the order. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Medscape
2 days ago
- Politics
- Medscape
US Judge Blocks Religious Exemption to Birth Control Coverage
(Reuters) -A U.S. judge on Wednesday struck down rules adopted during President Donald Trump's first term that exempt employers with religious or moral objections from having to provide workers with insurance coverage for birth control. U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone in Philadelphia said the 2018 rules were not justified, rejecting the Trump administration's claims that they were necessary to protect the rights of religious employers. The ruling came in a lawsuit by Pennsylvania and New Jersey that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 2020 upheld the rules on technical grounds but did not address their merits. The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Little Sisters of the Poor, a Roman Catholic order of nuns that intervened in the case to defend the rules, will appeal the ruling, according to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit that represents the order. The federal Affordable Care Act requires employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception but allows those with religious objections to seek exemptions. The 2018 rules created a blanket exemption for employers with religious or moral objections to contraception. The Trump administration said that even requiring employers to apply for an exemption could burden their religious practice, in violation of federal law. But Beetlestone on Wednesday said there was a mismatch between the vast scope of the exemption and the relatively small number of employers who may need it. That "casts doubt on whether ... there is a rational connection between the problem the Agencies identified and the solution they had chosen," wrote Beetlestone, an appointee of President Barack Obama, a Democrat. The administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, had proposed withdrawing the Trump administration rules in 2023 but that proposal was withdrawn weeks before Biden left office in January. (Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Epoch Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Federal Judge Strikes Down Religious Exception Rule for Obamacare
A federal judge on Aug. 13 vacated a rule that lets employers with religious objections opt out of an Affordable Care Act requirement that states the employers' insurance should cover abortion and contraceptives. U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone said that the rule, and a similar rule relating to moral objections, both of which were put into place in 2018 during the first Trump administration, were arbitrary and capricious, and in violation of federal law.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
US judge blocks Trump religious exemption to birth control coverage
By Daniel Wiessner (Reuters) -A U.S. judge on Wednesday struck down rules adopted during President Donald Trump's first term that exempt employers with religious or moral objections from having to provide workers with insurance coverage for birth control. U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone in Philadelphia said the 2018 rules were not justified, rejecting the Trump administration's claims that they were necessary to protect the rights of religious employers. The ruling came in a lawsuit by Pennsylvania and New Jersey that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 2020 upheld the rules on technical grounds but did not address their merits. The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Little Sisters of the Poor, a Roman Catholic order of nuns that intervened in the case to defend the rules, will appeal the ruling, according to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit that represents the order. The federal Affordable Care Act requires employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception but allows those with religious objections to seek exemptions. The 2018 rules created a blanket exemption for employers with religious or moral objections to contraception. The Trump administration said that even requiring employers to apply for an exemption could burden their religious practice, in violation of federal law. But Beetlestone on Wednesday said there was a mismatch between the vast scope of the exemption and the relatively small number of employers who may need it. That "casts doubt on whether ... there is a rational connection between the problem the Agencies identified and the solution they had chosen," wrote Beetlestone, an appointee of President Barack Obama, a Democrat. The administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, had proposed withdrawing the Trump administration rules in 2023 but that proposal was withdrawn weeks before Biden left office in January.
Reuters
3 days ago
- Health
- Reuters
US judge blocks Trump religious exemption to birth control coverage
Aug 13 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Wednesday struck down rules adopted during President Donald Trump's first term that exempt employers with religious or moral objections from having to provide workers with insurance coverage for birth control. U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone in Philadelphia said the 2018 rules were not justified, rejecting the Trump administration's claims that they were necessary to protect the rights of religious employers. The ruling came in a lawsuit by Pennsylvania and New Jersey that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 2020 upheld the rules on technical grounds but did not address their merits. The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Little Sisters of the Poor, a Roman Catholic order of nuns that intervened in the case to defend the rules, will appeal the ruling, according to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit that represents the order. The federal Affordable Care Act requires employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception but allows those with religious objections to seek exemptions. The 2018 rules created a blanket exemption for employers with religious or moral objections to contraception. The Trump administration said that even requiring employers to apply for an exemption could burden their religious practice, in violation of federal law. But Beetlestone on Wednesday said there was a mismatch between the vast scope of the exemption and the relatively small number of employers who may need it. That "casts doubt on whether ... there is a rational connection between the problem the Agencies identified and the solution they had chosen," wrote Beetlestone, an appointee of President Barack Obama, a Democrat. The administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, had proposed withdrawing the Trump administration rules in 2023 but that proposal was withdrawn weeks before Biden left office in January.
