Tong joins national effort to preserve women’s access to birth control under the Affordable Care Act

Hartford Courant (CT)

Connecticut has joined a national movement to preserve women’s access to birth control as more companies have cited religious or moral objections in denying women workers insurance coverage for contraceptive care.

Attorney General William Tong said he has joined colleagues in 22 other states in a court brief to support officials in Nevada who are trying to defend women’s access to birth control.

Corporations and institutions have always had the right, under both the Affordable Care Act and federal regulations, to deny coverage for birth control on religious or moral grounds. The Catholic Church, for example, does not have to pay for women employees to receive contraceptive care.

But Tong and Democratic attorneys general across the country assert that the Trump administration’s interpretation of this exemption is overly broad and, in fact, favors expanding the basis on which companies can block their employees and their employees’ dependents from receiving insurance coverage for contraceptive care and services.

So far, the Fifth Circuit and seven other U.S. courts of appeals have rejected arguments from some companies and health providers that “that the mere act of opting out of providing contraceptive coverage substantially burdens their exercise of religion under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” Tong’s office said in a statement Tuesday.

"Women deserve equal, unfettered access to birth control regardless of where they work. Nothing in the Affordable Care Act infringes upon an employer's religious freedom, a finding that has been upheld by courts across the country. Efforts by the Trump Administration to regulate women's personal health choices are harmful and unlawful and must be struck down," Tong said.

Under the Affordable Care Act, more than 45 million women in the U.S. receive birth control with no out-of-pocket costs.

Other new federal regulations grant a wide range of health care institutions and individuals a right to refuse care based on the provider’s own personal views.

In May, Tong said those rules are far too broad, enabling ambulance drivers, emergency room doctors and even receptionists and customer service representatives at insurance companies to deny care.

That stance, Tong said, “panders to an anti-choice and homophobic fringe,” and endangers people, particularly women and LGBTQ individuals, “who already face needless hurdles [in] accessing healthcare.”

In contrast, said Tong’s office, Connecticut requires health care professionals to provide care in emergency situations, obtain informed consent from patients before providing or denying care, and arrange for alternative care when providers are unable to offer treatment for personal or ethical reasons.

In the Nevada contraception case, Tong and the other 22 attorneys general asserted that women’s “access to full and equal health coverage is critical to their health, well-being, and economic security.”

Losing that access would “inflict broad harms on the states and their residents ... imposing costs on the states from increased reliance on state-funded programs that provide contraception and from unintended pregnancies,” the court filing says.

The attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington joined the brief led by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey.