Comments needed: Protect access to birth control.

The comment to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reads: “I strongly oppose the Department of Health and Human Services’ new rule that guts the Affordable Care Act’s birth control benefit. I also stand firmly against employers using religion to discriminate against women.”

Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) just gutted the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) birth control benefit.1 Its new rule would allow any employer to use religion or morality as an excuse to ignore the ACA and refuse to provide employee health plans that cover no-cost contraception. Millions of women could lose access to birth control because of their employers’ personal religious beliefs. We need to show that there is massive opposition to this anti-women attack and go on the record against it now. Comments needed: Protect access to birth control. Click here to submit your comment. Like other bigoted right-wing Republicans before him, Trump is using the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) to enact a blatantly discriminatory policy. The RFRA was designed to protect religious minorities, but Republican extremists have used it to pass anti-LGBTQ laws in states across the country for years. HHS’ new rule is another perversion of the RFRA. It would: Give employers the power to deny their employees contraceptive coverage based on a religious or moral objection. Allow religiously affiliated universities to completely deny their students birth control coverage. The ACA’s birth control benefit gave 62.4 million women access to no-cost birth control and saved them an estimated $1.4 billion a year.2 It is one of the ACA’s landmark reforms that reduced the cost of health care for women and made sure that insurance companies could not charge a person more for care based on their sex or gender. ACA provisions like the birth control benefit moved the fight for gender equality one huge step forward. This latest attack proves, once again, that Trump and his right-wing sexist regime are determined not only to demolish the ACA, but roll back women’s health and rights by any means necessary. Trump Republicans want to control women’s bodies and keep women in their place. They just passed a 20-week abortion ban in the House. They continue to advance policies that would significantly reduce access to contraception and defund Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers at the state and federal levels. And they refuse to call votes on bills to ensure equal pay or paid family leave. Under Trump, Republicans’ war on women and vendetta to destroy the ACA are escalating rapidly. We need to make sure that every single attack is met with massive public opposition. Will you submit a comment now? Comments needed: Protect access to birth control. Click the link below to submit your comment. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/hhs-birthcontrol?t=7&akid=25584%2E3130208%2EDe1fRl - Nicole Regalado, Campaign Manager CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: Amy Goldstein, Juliet Eilperin and William Wan, “Trump administration narrows Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate,” The Washington Post, Oct. 6, 2017. National Women’s Law Center, “The Affordable Care Act’s Birth Control Benefit Is Working for Women,” accessed Oct. 10, 2017.