NARAL and Planned Parenthood were both outraged Friday at the news that the Trump administration is allowing broad religious exemptions for employers from the Obamacare contraceptive mandate due to religious and moral objections.
According to NARAL, allowing an employer the ability not to pay for contraceptives that go against their religious beliefs and were not mandated to be covered under insurance prior to the 2011 Obamacare mandate, “robs women of our basic dignity.”
NARAL President Ilyse Hogue responded to the news by saying, “Donald Trump’s latest dictate is a perfect execution of his passions: controlling women and robbing people of healthcare.”
She said the move “reminds us that the anti-choice GOP is trying to impose a radical world view on the country. In their world, women should not be able to prevent pregnancy, choose an abortion, or have support in raising families. Birth control is the key to our ability to stay healthy, take care of our planned families, and contribute to our communities and society—all things that this GOP apparently stands in opposition to.”
“But giving our bosses decision-making power over whether and which birth control we can have goes the extra mile to be destructive and demeaning,” she concluded. “Donald Trump is flat-out wrong and going against public well-being and public opinion on this. He should reverse course immediately.”
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Hogue even tweeted some speculation that the move was announced just prior to the day Trump’s Access Hollywood tape was leaked to “underscore how creepy DJT is.”
Was the plan to take away birth control on anniversary of Access Hollywood tape release to underscore how creepy DJT is? #handsoffmyBC
— ilyse hogue (@ilyseh) October 6, 2017
Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion organization, reacted in a similarly dramatic fashion. They encourage women to send a message to the Trump administration that reads “this attack on such fundamental health care is unacceptable. Leave our birth control access alone.”
Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards tweeted that the rollback of the mandate was a “new low” for the Trump administration.
Women have been in the crosshairs of virtually every policy from this admin - but this attack is a new low. https://t.co/B1osAQP7re
— Cecile Richards (@CecileRichards) October 6, 2017
There is, however, at least one group of women that will not be protesting the move: The Little Sisters of the Poor.
The nuns, who care for the elderly poor in the U.S., may finally see some relief along with other nonprofit religious organizations that had been involved in a five-year long lawsuit against the Obama administration over the contraceptive mandate.
Paying for or supporting the use of contraception is contrary to fundamental Catholic moral teaching. The Obama administration offered the groups an accommodation that would delegate the contraception coverage to a third party, but they objected that the process still left them complicit in the coverage.
Their case was remanded to appeals courts with direction from the Supreme Court that the Obama administration and the organizations work out a compromise.
Trump specifically promised the sisters in May that “your long ordeal will soon be over” when he signed an executive order on religious freedom asking his cabinet to address religious concerns with the mandate.
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