contraceptives

A federal judge temporarily blocked the government from putting into effect new rules that would expand the exemption to the federal contraceptive mandate to the Little Sisters of the Poor and other religious employers.

A rule finalizing the religious exemption to the contraceptive mandate should be “the end of a long cultural war fight” over the issue and confirm that the U.S. government “never needed nuns to give out contraceptives” to women, said the president of the Becket law firm.

A team of Catholic Medical Association physicians and students are working on a comprehensive literature review of the medical effects of contraception, set to be available later this year.

Little Sisters of the Poor are going back to court after Pennsylvania and California filed complaints against the federal government over the exemption.

The Trump administration Oct. 6 issued interim rules expanding the exemption to the contraceptive mandate for religious employers, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, who object on moral grounds to covering contraceptive and abortion-inducing drugs and devices in their employee health insurance.

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has called on President Donald Trump to ease the “onerous” contraceptive mandate of the Department of Health and Human Services under the Affordable Care Act because it violates religious freedom.

A draft of the HHS regulations reflects common sense and a long-held practice of the federal government to provide strong conscience protection in the area of health care.