Court blocks birth control coverage rules

A divided panel of a federal appeals court in California on Thursday partially upheld a decision blocking a set of rules from the Trump administration that allowed some employers to deny insurance coverage of birth control due to religious or moral reasons.

The rules, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services in October 2017, vastly expanded the range of companies that could opt out of an Affordable Care Act mandate that required employers to cover contraception at no cost for the employee.

In December 2017, California and three other states filed a lawsuit over the rules, and a lower court issued a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking the rules from taking effect. Thursday’s decision, from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, upheld that decision - but only in the five states that sued, California, Delaware, Maryland, New York and Virginia.

In a 2-1 decision, the panel of judges held that the Department of Health and Human Services enacted its rules without the notice and comment period required by federal law. But the judges concluded that the scope of the preliminary injunction was overly broad, “and that the district court abused its discretion in that regard,” 9th Circuit Judge Clifford Wallace wrote.

The panel ruled that it was “reasonably probable” that the five states would suffer irreparable economic harm by the rules, but that the facts in the case did not sufficiently demonstrate a nationwide detrimental impact.

While Thursday’s decision would allow enforcement of the rules in many states, a preliminary injunction in a separate case in Pennsylvania remains in effect.