A federal judge on Aug. 13 vacated a rule that lets employers with religious objections opt out of an Affordable Care Act requirement that states the employers’ insurance should cover abortion and contraceptives.
U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone said that the rule, and a similar rule relating to moral objections, both of which were put into place in 2018 during the first Trump administration, were arbitrary and capricious, and in violation of federal law.
Beetlestone analyzed the rationale for enacting the rules, including a reliance on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)—a law that bars the government from “substantially burden[ing] a person’s exercise of religion unless certain exceptions are met—and concluded it did not support the rule….