Press Releases

Today, an interim final Trump Administration rule that would allow any employer to be exempt from the requirement to provide health insurance that includes contraception was leaked to the public. Reps. Suzan DelBene (WA-01), Judy Chu (CA-27), Diana DeGette (CO-01), Louise Slaughter (NY-25), Barbara Lee (CA-13), and Jackie Speier (CA-14), who recently sent a letter to Ivanka Trump inviting her to a meeting on the importance of affordable contraception, released the following statement:

“Contraception is health care that is essential to many but not affordable to all. That is why the Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s contraception mandate matters so much – it makes access a reality. Thanks to the ACA’s contraception protections, the percentage of women who had to pay out of pocket for contraception care dropped from 20 percent to 4 percent. Affordable access to contraception is part of why unintended pregnancy and abortion rates are at an historic low. But with this interim final rule, President Trump is threatening to roll back all of that progress by giving any employer veto power over a woman’s healthcare decisions. And let’s be clear: this is an attack on women’s health. This rule would subject a woman’s choice and the opinion of her doctor to the whims and judgments of her employer. From family planning to treatment for medical conditions like endometriosis and ovarian cysts, women use birth control to make healthy decisions for themselves and their families. We strongly oppose this broad exemption to the contraception benefit and urge President Trump to rethink before he officially publishes the interim final rule. And before any decision is made, we once again extend our invitation to Ivanka Trump to meet with us to discuss the importance of affordable birth control in empowering women.” 

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