Today the U.S. Supreme Court upheld President Trump’s new contraceptive mandate rules in a 7 – 2 opinion authored Justice Clarence Thomas. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented.
WLP attorneys filed an amicus brief in the case when it was before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. In April, we joined a brief filed by the National Women’s Law Center.
The Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate has always had religious exemptions. With today’s ruling, those exemptions have been so broadly expanded that the mandate is virtually unenforceable, an empty promise to American women.
As Justice Ginsburg observed in dissent, the majority opinion “leaves women workers to fend for themselves, to seek contraceptive coverage from sources other than their employer’s insurer, and, absent another available source of funding, to pay for contraceptive services out of their own pockets.”
Under the new rules, nearly any employer can block their employees from using employer-based health insurance to access medicine that reduces unintended pregnancies, abortions, miscarriages, child mortality, and maternal mortality. Many people need contraceptive medicine to treat conditions such as endometriosis, which affects 10 – 15% of all women.
“Equitable access to contraception is universally recognized by public health authorities as essential for women’s health,” said Susan J. Frietsche, senior staff attorney and director of WLP’s Western Pennsylvania office. “It reduces unintended pregnancy, abortions, and maternal mortality.”
Contraceptive use is common among women of all religious denominations. Among sexually experienced religious women, 99% of Catholics and Protestants have ever used some form of contraception.
The U.S. has the highest rate of infant mortality among countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Compared to 19 similar OECD countries, U.S. babies were three times more likely to die from extreme immaturity and 2.3 times more likely to experience sudden infant death syndrome.
The United States is one of only 13 countries in the world where the rate of maternal mortality is now worse than it was 25 years ago. Black women are three to four times as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes as their white counterparts.
“This is a huge blow to low-wage workers, and particularly harms women of color who disproportionately hold low-wage jobs,” says WLP attorney Christine Castro. “In the midst of a pandemic and a tanking economy, this ruling will have disastrous effects on the economic security, health, and wellbeing of women and people who can become pregnant who are already struggling.”
The majority ordered the case back down to the lower court with instructions to lift the nationwide injunction that had blocked the implementation of the exemptions. It is estimated that up to 126,400 women could be at risk of immediately losing no-cost contraceptive coverage under the broadened exemptions.
To request an interview with a WLP attorney, contact tmurtha@womenslawproject.org.
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