Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether the Trump administration may allow almost any employer to deny workers access to free birth control by citing religious or moral objections.
From an explainer at Huffington Post:
The case, Trump v. Pennsylvania, consolidated with Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania, centers on the birth control mandate, a hotly disputed regulation under the Affordable Care Act that requires most private health insurance plans to cover Food and Drug Administration-approved forms of birth control without a copay.
The mandate has been credited with dramatically reducing birth control costs in the U.S. It has also triggered a litany of lawsuits over the rights of employers who object to contraception on religious grounds. This is the third time the mandate has reached the Supreme Court, but the first since conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh joined the bench.
Last year, attorneys at the Women’s Law Project filed an amicus curiae brief in Trump v. Pennsylvania urging the Court to consider how the Trump Administration’s new rules violate core constitutional guarantees and thereby further entrench systemic and structural barriers to individual self-determination and equal participation in social, political, and economic life experienced by women—especially women of color, who are disproportionately low-income, and others who face multiple, intersecting forms of discrimination.
You can review our brief and prior media coverage of the case here.
On April 8, WLP signed on to an amicus curiae brief filed by the National Women’s Law Center on behalf of more than 50 organizations committed to ensuring equitable access to reproductive healthcare including contraceptive coverage without cost-sharing as guaranteed by the Affordable Care Act.
“We’re amid a global pandemic, yet the Trump Administration’s priority is to deprive Americans of access to contraception,” says Susan J. Frietsche, senior staff attorney at the Women’s Law Project. “The people who should be leading the country are actively seeking to harm us. We’ve been left to fight for our lives in more ways than one here.”
Due to the pandemic, the Supreme Court Justices are going to hear oral arguments via teleconference.
That means you have the opportunity to listen to the arguments online. C-Span will stream oral arguments starting at 10AM.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reportedly will participate from a hospital, where she was admitted for treatment of a gallbladder infection.
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