In 2014, the Supreme Court approved a narrow exemption for private businesses to opt out of the birth control mandate instituted under the ACA (ObamaCare) for religious reasons. Through regulatory changes, President Trump recently expanded the freedom of employers to opt out of the ObamaCare birth control mandate. According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation,
The Trump Administration has issued new regulations that significantly broaden employers’ ability to be exempt from the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) contraceptive coverage requirement. The regulation opens the door for any employer or college/ university with a student health plan with objections to contraceptive coverage based on religious beliefs to qualify for an exemption. Any nonprofit or closely-held for-profit employer with moral objections to contraceptive coverage also qualifies for an exemption. Their female employees, dependents and students will no longer be entitled to coverage for the full range of FDA approved contraceptives at no cost.
These are the extraordinary health consequences when we increase access to birth control, not only domestically but worldwide:
Better access has resulted in lower HIV rates, lower mother-to-child transmission of HIV, lower infant mortality rates, fewer abortions (both safe and unsafe), and it allows people to plan pregnancies, which results in better health for both mother and child.
No one is proposing to outlaw birth control. No one is proposing to make it illegal for anyone to voluntarily help a woman financially who can’t afford to pay for contraception out-of-pocket, or forbid that woman from seeking help from friends, family, or private charity. What the contraception mandate does is force some people to pay for other women’s contraception, and that’s immoral. It’s not about “access to birth control.” It’s about access to other people’s wallets—or not.
Having said that, carving out religious exemptions for this one insurance mandate is not enough. All insurance mandates should be abolished, so insurers can tailor policies to consumers’ demand, and consumers can more effectively buy the insurance they need, want, and that fits their budgets, whether businesses or individuals.
Don’t fall for the dishonest intellectual gimmickry. Being against the contraception mandate is not being against contraception. It does not mean being for more abortions, more HIV, more teen pregnancies, or less family planning. Only fools fall for that cruel “logic”. We each have our own lives to live. We are not our sisters’ keepers. Opposing the birth control mandate is being against legalized theft—a government as a tool of plunder to pick some people’s pockets for the unearned benefit of another. The insurance industry should not be a tool of socialist government policies. That’s fascism. Every individual is morally responsible for paying for her own healthcare needs, and insurance is a tool to help her do that, to be used when and as she sees fit. But no one has a right to insurance coverage that others don’t voluntarily provide, or that others are made to subsidize against their will.
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