"Maura Healey sues Trump over birth control coverage" by Stephanie Ebbert Globe Staff October 06, 2017
Massachusetts dove headfirst into another legal confrontation with the Trump administration Friday, as Attorney General Maura Healey sued the federal government over newly issued rules giving employers the right to deny women birth control coverage by claiming religious or moral objections.
Hours after the US Department of Health and Human Services issued the two new rules, Healey filed a complaint in US District Court in Boston seeking to block them, charging that they violate both the establishment and the equal protection clauses of the Constitution.
“This is about taking away women’s access to birth control under the guise of religious liberty,” Healey told reporters during a conference call. The suit charges that the new rules “promote the religious freedom of corporations over the autonomy of women.”
The rules, which take effect immediately, effectively end the Affordable Care Act’s five-year-old provision mandating that health insurers cover birth control as preventative care without copayments.
While the mandate left only narrow exemptions, the new policy would let nearly all employers opt out of covering birth control without copayments based on religious or moral objections.
The announcement also seemed to establish a new front in women’s ongoing battle with Trump. The news came exactly a year after his presidential campaign was upended by the release of an Access Hollywood video that captured him boasting about grabbing women’s genitals. On Friday, Ultraviolet, a women’s group, erected a sordid monument to that spectacle behind the White House: A large screen replayed the vulgar video on a nonstop loop for 12 hours. And some women’s activists indicated they intend to make things personal as they protest the Trump administration’s stance on reproductive issues.
In another, separate victory for religious groups Friday.....
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Related: N.H. Representative Carol Shea-Porter unexpectedly announces she’ll retire
She's tired of playing musical chairs..... and so am I.
