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With the clock ticking down on the Biden Administration, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Treasury (the Departments) announced the withdrawal of a proposed rule on December 24 that would have limited religious and moral exemptions to the requirement for health plans to cover contraceptives. The Departments said the withdrawal of the February 2023 notice of proposed rulemaking is necessary “to focus their time and resources on matters other than finalizing these rules.”
The proposed rule, which received nearly 45,000 comments, would have amended a 2018 rule that the Administration said did not sufficiently consider women’s significant interests in access to contraceptive services. The proposed rule would have taken two principal actions: eliminating the exemption for entities with moral objections (while retaining the religious exemption) and providing an independent pathway for people enrolled in plans that elect the exemption to access contraceptive services.
Finalizing the rule this late in the Administration would have risked nullification by the Congressional Review Act, if Congress chose to act, which could block the Departments from proposing any substantially similar rule in the future. In pulling back the proposed rule, the Departments emphasized that “withdrawal does not limit the Departments' ability to make new regulatory proposals in the areas addressed by the withdrawn proposed rules, including new proposals that may be substantially identical or similar to those described therein.”
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