Draft rule revokes birth control coverage
From wire services
The Trump administration has drafted a rule that would allow religious employers to stop covering birth control in employer health plans.
On its website, the White House Office of Management and Budget said it is reviewing an “interim final rule” to relax the requirement, a step that would all but ensure a court challenge by women’s rights groups.
The free contraceptive mandate was one of the most controversial components of the Affordable Care Act signed into law by then-President Barack Obama in 2010. Supporters argue that it is a basic issue of women’s rights and suggest that the increased availability of safe contraceptives contributed to a decline in teen births and abortions.The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Academy of Pediatrics and many other medical groups further argued that there are numerous scientifically recognized benefits of birth control use in additional to preventing pregnancy.
But the measure has also been a target of dozens of lawsuits by organizations that argue that it goes against their religious beliefs. One such group, the 178-year-old Little Sisters of the Poor, took their fight to the Supreme Court, but the high court ultimately kicked the decision back down to the lower courts.
President Donald Trump earlier this month invited the Little Sisters of the Poor to join him as he signed an executive order to “address conscience-based objections to the preventive-care mandate.” The draft rule, reported by The New York Times, was viewed as the result of that order.
On Tuesday, Democrats in Congress vowed to fight such a change. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the plan “sickening” and said it would deny millions of women “access to basic, preventive health care.”
FBI director candidates
Mr. Trump was interviewing two more FBI director candidates Tuesday in what has become a winding search to find a new leader for the agency.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Mr. Trump was interviewing John Pistole, an FBI veteran and former Transportation Security Administration director who is now the president of Anderson University, and Christopher Wray, the former head of the Justice Department's criminal division who now works in private practice at the King & Spalding law firm.
Ore. stabbings tweet
Mr. Trump tweeted Monday that the attack on a lightrail train in Portland, Ore., on Friday that killed two men was “unacceptable.” Police say the victims were killed as they confronted a man who was shouting insults against Muslims. Mr. Trump recognized the victims for “standing up to hate and intolerance.”
The tweet came from the president's official Twitter account, @POTUS, which is chiefly run by his staff, and not from his personal account, @realDonaldTrump, which he controls. Mr. Trump has faced criticism for staying quiet about the attack for so many days, even though he is seen as quick to react to violent acts carried out by Muslim extremists.