DeGette, Fellow Pro-Choice Leaders React to Trump Administration Rule that Would Deny Birth Control Coverage for Millions of Women

WASHINGTON, DC —Congresswoman Diana DeGette (CO-1) and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (NY-25), co-chairs of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, and Rep. Judy Chu (CA-27) today reacted to the Trump administration's interim final rule that would allow any employer to be exempt from the requirement to provide health insurance that includes contraception. Currently, insurers are required to cover birth control at no cost under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). If implemented, this rule could rip away contraception coverage from millions of women who have access to birth control without out-of-pocket costs under the ACA, forcing women to pay the full cost of their birth control or go without it.

"This rule is another blatant attack in the Trump administration's ongoing efforts to undermine women's health," DeGette said. "In just eight months in office, the President has unleashed an unprecedented assault on reproductive rights that have harmed women and girls across America and around the world. Today's announcement, and those that came before it, shows that the President simply doesn't understand the challenges millions of women face in accessing quality care and the progress we have made through laws such as the Affordable Care Act to reach parity. We must counter this anti-choice agenda by making it clear that birth control is health care."

"Birth control is health care, plain and simple," Slaughter said. Millions of women use it for health and treatment reasons other than birth control. It wasn't until enactment of the Affordable Care Act that contraception was finally treated that way. Today, this law provides 55 million women access to birth control with no out-of-pocket costs almost two decades after Viagra was first covered by insurance. Women have been able to plan their families and teen pregnancy and abortion rates are at some of their lowest levels in history. It is unconscionable that the Trump administration is trying to turn back the clock and let virtually anyone from bosses to insurance executives decide who gets access to contraception coverage. Women wouldn't just have to pay higher costs; they could be forced to pay the entire cost of their birth control. We cannot let President Trump roll back the progress we've made and take women's personal health care decisions out of their hands," said Slaughter.

"Every day, millions of women use birth control to plan for their families and to treat common conditions like acne or ovarian cysts," Chu said. This is why the ACA requires health insurance plans to cover it without out-of-pocket costs. But Trump's contraception rule threatens women's health. Unlike with any other medication, this rule will allow employers to veto a treatment option agreed upon by a woman and her doctor. Birth control is health care, and nobody – not our boss, not our president – should get to dictate our health care choices."