Should employers be required by law to cover birth control? | The Tylt

The ACLU says allowing moral and religious exemptions from covering contraception is gender discrimination.

With the Obamacare birth control mandate on the chopping block, women are rushing to purchase more expensive, long-lasting forms of birth control—like the IUD before the mandate is taken away. Healthcare experts say hundreds of thousands of women would lose coverage to birth control if the new Trump administration rule goes into effect.

But religious groups applaud the move. The Obamacare mandate did provide an exemption for religious employers, but now for-profit businesses will be allowed to claim of moral exemption from covering contraception for their employees. For people who believe certain forms of birth control are either immoral or akin to abortion, the decision is a welcome one.

The rule would allow employers to claim a “moral objection” to providing contraceptive coverage in their health insurance, not just a “religious objection” as the law currently allows. The draft of the rule does not define what constitutes a “moral objection.” 

Many conservatives say feminist groups calling the change anti-woman are just being hysterical.

They see the decision to be sexually active as a personal choice that individual women need to take responsibility for.

But many groups say contraception is health care; women use it for many reasons other than the prevention of pregnancy. Affordable contraception dramatically reduces unintended pregnancies, the rate of abortions and the total number of welfare recipients, which is why the Obama administration spent years in court arguing that the government has a compelling public health interest in fully covering contraceptives.