New Rules Narrow ACA’ s Contraception Mandate

New rules issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) give employers more leeway to withhold birth control coverage on religious grounds. The rules would let a broad range of employers, including nonprofits, private firms and publicly traded companies, to stop offering free contraceptives through their health insurance plans if they have a “sincerely held religious or moral objection,” according to senior HHS officials. The rules could apply to the roughly 200 entities that have participated in about 50 lawsuits over birth control coverage. However, HHS officials said that “99.9 percent of women” who currently receive birth control through the contraceptive mandate would not be affected. The rules come more than three years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “closely held corporations” (in that case, Hobby Lobby) could be exempt from providing certain kinds of birth control to their employees.