Five states are asking a federal judge to halt the implementation of the Trump administration’s recent rollback of ObamaCare’s birth-control mandate.
The attorneys general in California, New York, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia filed the motion for a preliminary injunction Thursday night with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The filing is part of a lawsuit the states filed in October, which argues that the policy change is unconstitutional and discriminatory.
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Under the federal rules that took effect in October, any for-profit or nonprofit employer or insurer can stop following the birth-control mandate on moral and religious grounds.
The changes also let publicly traded companies obtain a religious exemption but not a moral one.
The Affordable Care Act required that employers offer health insurance that covers birth control without a co-pay, with exemptions for houses of worship and some private companies.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) argued the rules deny basic health care to millions of women.
“If a woman can’t control her own body, she isn’t truly free,” he said.
“Health care decisions should be made by a woman — not her boss. These retrograde rules seek to deny basic healthcare to millions of women in New York and across the country. We’ll continue to fight back and protect New Yorkers.”