A federal judge has ruled to block a set of new regulations put forward by the Trump administration.
The recent attempt the Trump administration has made to block the birth control mandate in the Affordable Care Act has been halted for the moment.
A federal judge in Pennsylvania has paused the ability for the efforts to move forward.
The Trump administration had been seeking to roll back the birth control mandate. This would make it harder for women to obtain no cost birth control if their employers state that they object to it on moral or religious grounds.
At the start of the week, U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone issued a preliminary injunction nationwide. This occurred on Monday, the very day that the Trump administration’s new policy was to become effective. Beetlestone’s ruling followed closely on the heels of that of a California federal district court judge. Not twenty four hours before, the ruling in California limited stay on the move to roll back the mandate in 13 states as well as Washington D.C.
The rulings to stop the birth control mandate are the latest in many attempts to change the A.C.A. rule.
The Affordable Care Act has undergone extensive changes under the Trump administration. This is particularly true of the expansion of women’s health care benefits. The courts have been in the midst of these battles for years.
These recent rulings are not a permanent stop to President Trump’s effort to roll back women’s health care. That said, it will halt Trump’s changes from becoming effective throughout the time when legal changes are in progress.
The Affordable Care Act states that preventive services for Americans should be insured without the need for consumers to pay any out of pocket fees. Women’s health care services such as birth control are included within that category, said a Washington Post report.
Under the A.C.A., also often known as Obamacare, all forms of contraception approved by the Food and Drug 
Administration (F.D.A.) have been included in that coverage since 2012. The ongoing dispute – and that continued by the Trump administration – regarding this birth control mandate has to do with “religious liberty” of employers.
