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Attorney General Janet Mills joins multistate court brief opposing roll back of contraception coverage mandate
November 29, 2017
OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Andrew Roth-Wells
Telephone: (207) 626-8887
Attorney General Janet Mills joins multistate court brief opposing roll back of contraception coverage mandate
Amicus brief filed in support of Pennsylvania?s lawsuit
AUGUSTA ? Attorney General Janet Mills joined a coalition of attorneys general in an amicus brief opposing the Trump Administration?s roll back of the ACA contraception requirement.
The amicus brief, filed with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, supports the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania?s lawsuit to stop the federal government from enforcing a new rule that would authorize virtually any employer with an objection to contraception to prevent employees and employees? dependents from having health insurance coverage for contraceptive services.
?This Trump administration?s proposal is an attack on the health of women throughout our country,? said Attorney General Mills. ?It is an attack on the right to privacy to allow employers to interfere in the most personal decisions of their employees? lives.?
Since the ACA was enacted in 2010, most employers who provide health insurance coverage to their employees have been required to include coverage for contraception, at no cost to the employee. As a result of the ACA, more than 55 million women in the United States, including 253,000 women in Maine, have access to contraception without a co-pay, saving an average of $255 per year for oral pill contraceptives.
For millions of women the ACA contraception coverage rule has reduced healthcare costs, helped address medical conditions and allowed them to make their own decisions about whether to have children. Before the contraception coverage rule, birth control accounted for 30-44% of a woman?s out-of-pocket healthcare costs.
In the brief, the attorneys general argue that the new rule is unconstitutional because it allows the federal government to endorse certain religious or moral beliefs over a woman?s right to make choices about her own health care.
The attorneys general also argue that the proposed rule denies equal protection under the law by denying critical benefits to women, while leaving coverage for men unchanged. Additionally, they argue that the Trump administration is taking away the right to contraceptive coverage ? a right that millions of women rely on ? in violation of the ACA itself, and without an opportunity for public comment and without following legal procedures.
