Pittsburgh, Pa., Dec 18, 2017 / 16:21 pm
Despite the long efforts of Catholics and others who have sought to prevent mandatory employer health care coverage of contraception, a federal judge in Pennsylvania has placed a temporary injunction on the Trump administration's new rules granting a broad religious or moral exemption.
"The Pennsylvania court's decision harms faith-based nonprofits and others who have fought for over half a decade to correct the serious injustice caused by the HHS Mandate," said Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee for Religious Liberty.
Judge Wendy Beetlestone granted the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's request for a preliminary injunction on Dec. 15. She said the commonwealth could suffer "serious and irreparable harm" from the rules, Politico reports.
In the decision granting the injunction, Beetlestone wrote that a lack of cost-effective contraception would mean that women would either forgo contraception or choose less effective methods and result in "individual choices which will result in an increase in unintended pregnancies." This would create economic harm for the commonwealth because "unintended pregnancies are more likely to impose additional costs on Pennsylvania's state-funded health programs."