Court rules on birth control law

SAN FRANCISCO — A divided U.S. appeals court Thursday blocked rules by the Trump administration that allowed more employers to opt out of providing women with no-cost birth control.

States were likely to succeed on their claim that the changes to President Barack Obama’s health care law were made without required notice and public comment, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 2-1 decision.

The majority upheld a preliminary injunction against the rules issued by a lower court judge last year. It, however, limited the scope of the injunction, applying it only to the five states in the lawsuit and not the entire country.

Obama’s health care law required most companies to cover birth control at no additional cost, though it included exemptions for religious organizations. The new policy allowed more categories of employers, including publicly traded companies, to opt out of providing free contraception to women by claiming religious objections. It also allowed any company that is not publicly traded to deny coverage on moral grounds.

The Department of Justice said in court documents that the rules were about protecting a small group of “sincere religious and moral objectors” from having to violate their beliefs. The changes were favored by social conservatives who are staunch supporters of President Trump.

California filed a lawsuit to block the changes that was joined by Delaware, Maryland, New York and Virginia.

The states argued that the changes could result in millions of women losing free birth control services, forcing them to seek contraceptive care through state-run programs or programs that the states had to reimburse.

The states show with “reasonable probability” that the new rules will lead women to lose employer-sponsored contraceptive coverage, “which will then result in economic harm to the states,” 9th Circuit Judge J. Clifford Wallace wrote for the majority.

In a dissent, 9th Circuit Judge Andrew Kleinfeld said the economic harm to the states was “self-inflicted” because they chose to provide contraceptive coverage to women.

Sudhin Thanawala is an Associated Press writer.