People rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court rally supporting the Affordable Care Act's mandate that employers cover birth control. The Trump administration's challenge of the mandate has reached the high court.
Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh on Wednesday joined a coalition of 21 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief supporting Pennsylvania in its U.S. Supreme Court case defending mandated contraceptive coverage under Obamacare.
The attorneys general said in the brief filed in the case, Donald Trump et al v. Pennsylvania, that the Affordable Care Act’s requirement to cover birth-control coverage with no co-pay has benefited more than 62 million women.
“Access to affordable birth control is critical to the health, well-being and economic security of the states’ residents,” the coalition argued.
Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh
“The ACA is clear that cost-free contraceptive care and services is guaranteed,” Frosh said in a statement released Wednesday. “As long as the federal government continues to illegally ignore this requirement, Maryland will continue to take action to protect its residents and ensure access to contraception.”
The Trump administration issued rules in 2017 and 2018 allowing employers to ignore the ACA mandate and deny birth-control coverage to their employees due to religious or moral objections.
California, joined by Maryland and 12 other states, had obtained an injunction blocking the rules in those states. Pennsylvania and New Jersey obtained a nationwide injunction that stopped the regulations from going into effect while litigation was pending. Appeals courts upheld both injunctions.
The federal government, Little Sisters of the Poor, and March for Life then filed petitions for certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court. The court granted the petitions in the Pennsylvania litigation. The petitions from the California litigation are pending.
In the brief filed in the Supreme Court case on Wednesday, the attorneys general argue that the states have a vested interest in providing women contraceptive coverage.
