Biden Administration Withdraws Proposed Birth Control Rules, Keeping Trump-Era Protections in Place

The Biden administration has withdrawn a set of proposed rules intended to expand access to contraception, effectively leaving in place Trump-era policies that allow employers to exclude birth control coverage from health plans due to “non-religious moral objections.”

The decision, announced late Monday in a Federal Register notice, cited a need to redirect time and resources toward other priorities rather than finalizing the rules.

The proposed changes, introduced last year, aimed to address the balance between expanding contraceptive access and accommodating the religious objections of certain employers.

Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the majority of employer-sponsored health insurance plans are required to cover at least one of the 18 FDA-approved forms of contraception.

However, in 2018, the Trump administration broadened the scope of employer exemptions, granting businesses and organizations with religious or moral objections the ability to opt out of providing contraceptive coverage.

The Biden administration’s proposed rules sought to roll back parts of the Trump-era provisions by limiting exemptions and providing a workaround for employees whose employers refused to cover contraception.

The workaround would have allowed employees of religious organizations to access free contraceptive services directly from participating providers or facilities.

At the time of the proposal, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stressed the importance of ensuring contraceptive access, especially following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

The landmark ruling ended the constitutional right to abortion and heightened concerns about reproductive healthcare access.

“Ensuring access to contraception at no cost is a national public health imperative,” HHS stated in the proposal. The department argued that with the loss of abortion rights in many states, reliable access to birth control became more critical than ever.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra underscored this urgency in a 2023 statement: “Now more than ever, access to and coverage of birth control is critical as the Biden-Harris Administration works to help ensure women everywhere can get the contraception they need, when they need it.”

Despite the proposed rules’ potential to improve access, they faced pushback from religious organizations and conservative groups that argued the changes infringed on religious liberties. Critics warned that rolling back Trump-era protections could lead to lawsuits and further political polarization.

By withdrawing the proposed rules, the Biden administration has opted to maintain the status quo, which permits employers to claim exemptions on religious or moral grounds.

This decision has sparked criticism from reproductive health advocates, who view it as a missed opportunity to strengthen contraceptive access during a time of increased restrictions on reproductive rights.

The withdrawal leaves the debate over contraceptive access and employer exemptions unresolved. With reproductive healthcare already under strain due to the rollback of abortion rights, advocates argue that expanding access to contraception remains a critical issue for public health and gender equity.

For now, however, the Trump-era policies remain intact, preserving broad protections for employers who object to contraception coverage.