The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has withdrawn a set of proposed regulations aimed at expanding access to contraception, leaving in place Trump-era rules that allow employers to opt out of providing birth control coverage due to religious or moral objections.
The decision not to move forward with the proposed rules, which sought to narrow the ability of employers to claim exemptions to the Obamacare contraception mandate, was announced by the HHS in a notice on Dec. 23.
The withdrawn rules, first proposed in 2023, aimed to limit how employers could avoid covering contraception under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). They would have barred employers from claiming moral objections and created a system to let employees of religious organizations get free birth control directly from health care providers. At the time, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said the changes aimed to expand access to contraception after the 2022 Supreme Court Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade and eliminated federal protections for on-demand abortions….