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Coalition Supports Challenge to Trump Administration Regulations that Allow Employers to Restrict Access to Birth Control
BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today joined a coalition of 21 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in support of a challenge to the first Trump administration’s 2017 and 2018 regulations undermining the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) guarantee of no-cost contraception coverage by employer healthcare plans. The regulations expand religious and moral exemptions to allow employers to strip workers of guaranteed, no-cost coverage for birth control and other contraceptive care and services. In their brief, Attorney General Brown and the coalition urge the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to affirm the District Court’s ruling that the regulations are unlawful.
“The law is clear: employers cannot strip workers of no-cost birth control coverage,” said Attorney General Anthony Brown. “These unlawful rules do exactly that – putting women's health, financial security, and reproductive freedom at risk. Maryland will not stand by while the Trump Administration dismantles rights that women have counted on for years.”
In the brief, Attorney General Brown and the coalition argue that the regulations threaten contraceptive coverage for hundreds of thousands of women, putting at risk their health and the economic and public health of the states generally. Today, more than 80% of women ages 18 to 49 report having used some form of contraception in the past 12 months. With contraception costing an average of $584 per user per year, these unlawful regulations could shift an estimated $73.8 million in costs to individuals who rely on contraceptive care, creating significant barriers to accessing safe, effective healthcare. The coalition also argues that states will face significant financial strain as they are forced to expend millions of dollars for replacement contraceptive care and services through state-funded programs.
Access to birth control and contraceptive care has been substantially reduced in the years since these regulations were first implemented, and this harm will be exacerbated if the regulations remain in place because of changes in the landscape for reproductive healthcare. Many clinics that provide reproductive healthcare services – which would have helped fill the gap these regulations create – have since had their funding decimated by the Trump administration. Moreover, a wave of abortion restrictions following the overturning of Roe v. Wade has further constrained the options available for unintended pregnancies.
The coalition argues that by limiting access to necessary contraceptive care, the unlawful regulations deepen already prevalent racial, gender, and income disparities. People of color and people with low incomes are disproportionately likely to live in “contraceptive deserts,” or areas that lack reasonable access to the full range of contraceptive care. An estimated 19 million American women live in these deserts and face additional challenges to accessing birth control. The regulations threaten to exacerbate these already significant health disparities and make accessing birth control even more challenging for marginalized communities.
Attorney General Brown and the coalition urge the Court to affirm the District Court’s judgment striking down the Trump administration’s regulations and protect access to birth control and contraceptive care.
Joining Attorney General Brown in filing this brief are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.
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