This Court Just Brought a Halt to the Trump Administration’s Effort to Protect More Organizations from the Obamacare Contraception Mandate

The Trump administration finalized rules last November that would allow more employers to opt out of offering contraceptives through employee health insurance plans, as mandated by Obamacare.

The rules would have protected closely held businesses (like Hobby Lobby, which scored a victory in the U.S. Supreme Court in 2014) and faith-based charities and colleges with religious or moral objections to facilitating the death of the unborn. Some forms of birth control might kill unborn babies, which pro-life business owners and organizations oppose.

But a federal judge partially blocked the administration’s efforts. The judge issued a preliminary injunction that would have expanded exemptions. From the Washington Times:

Judge Gilliam, presiding in California, noted strong arguments on both sides of the debate over former President Barack Obama’s mandate, which devout business owners and religiously affiliated nonprofit employers have blasted as a violation of their faith or moral beliefs.

However, the judge was sympathetic to women who work for objecting employees and might lose access to affordable contraceptives.

The blue-state plaintiffs “face potentially dire public health and fiscal consequences from the implementation of the final rules,” the judge wrote.

Judge Gilliam, an appointee of President Barack Obama, enjoined the new rules in Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington state and the nation’s capital.

The unrelenting attempts of the abortion lobby to force pro-life employers to pay for drugs that might kill babies in the womb mean individual non-exempt business owners and organizations must continue filing lawsuits to protect their freedom not to go against their religious or moral values under government coercion.