Statement by Sara Hutchinson Ratcliffe, CFC Acting President, on the Trump administration’s new final rule mandating separate premiums

Washington, DC— Not content to simply undermine the benefits of the Affordable Care Act, the Trump administration today released a regulation that has the federal government imposing burdensome restrictions on abortion coverage onto the private insurance market.

Statement by Sara Hutchinson Ratcliffe, Acting President of Catholics for Choice: “This is yet another of the Trump administration’s blatant attempts to move abortion out of reach for any and all who need it.  The onerous rules will force insurers to stop offering coverage for abortions services in many if not all of the private insurance plans.  Not only does this place an additional financial burden on some of the most marginalized in our society, it represents yet another attack on American’s ideal of religious freedom by imposing one narrow set of religious views into public law.

“Religious freedom is an expansive, rather than a restrictive idea.  It involves freedom of religion and freedom from religious as expressed in the Constitution.  The protections the Founders put in place to preserve religious freedom do not—and should not—be considered to permit religious institutions or the federal government itself to obstruct or coerce the exercise of one’s conscience.

“The administration continues to project its narrow views and those of its ultraconservative allies and continues to undermine the conscience choice of people of faith and people who espouse no faith with whom they happen to disagree.”

###