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President Trump Lifts Birth Control Mandate

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The new Trump policy allowing employers to drop coverage of contraceptives on religious grounds. We’ll dig in.

(Rich Pedroncelli/AP)
(Rich Pedroncelli/AP)


In all the news of crazy California wildfires and Iran deal moves and Senator Corker warning about the president, contraception has been almost lost in the shuffle.  But the Trump administration has just made a very significant move allowing employers, on religious or now simply “moral” grounds, to deny insurance coverage of contraception to their employees.  Supporters say yay.  Critics call it a step toward Saudi-style theocracy.  An attack on women.  This hour, On Point:  contraception and the law under Donald Trump. --Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Ema O'Connor, BuzzFeed reproductive policy reporter. (o_ema)

Gretchen Borchelt, vice president for reproductive rights and health at the National Women's Law Center. 
Ashley McGuire, a senior fellow with The Catholic Association. (@AshMcG)

From Tom's Reading List

BuzzFeed: The Trump Administration Is Already Facing Five Lawsuits Over Its New Birth Control Rules — "Three states and two activist organizations filed lawsuits against the Trump administration over its new rules allowing employers to drop insurance coverage for contraception, within days of the Department of Health and Human Services implementing the changes. The ACLU and attorneys general for California and Massachusetts filed lawsuits Friday, mere hours after the rule was implemented, and Washington state followed suit Monday evening."

National Review: A Win For Freedom Of Conscience — "To live and let live — to respect the private mind and the private conscience — is not only the expression of a moral principle. It is also a pragmatic political instrument. People cannot simply mind their own business when they are being dragooned by the taxman into financially participating in other people’s life choices, including their sex lives."

New York Times: On Contraception, It's Church Over State (Opinion) "The new rules, which went into immediate effect, create exceptions that are anything but limited. They are, in fact, there for the taking. Any “entities” that claim not only religious but also “moral” objections to birth control are entitled to refuse to comply with the federal contraception mandate that until last Friday was enabling 55 million women to receive birth control without charge as part of their work- or college-related health insurance coverage."

This program aired on October 12, 2017.

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