ILLINOIS - Attorney General Lisa Madigan, along with 13 other attorneys general, moved to block the federal government’s new final rules that would deny millions of women and their families’ access to cost-free birth control by allowing employers to interfere with their healthcare decisions.
The final rules, which are set to go into effect on January 14, 2019, would jeopardize the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that employers provide coverage of all 18 FDA-approved birth control methods and counseling for employees and their covered dependents with no out-of-pocket costs. To date, 62 million women across the country have benefited from these reproductive health services, including 2.5 million in Illinois.
“A woman’s control of her own body and access to critical healthcare services should not be denied by the federal government or her employer,” Madigan said. “I am working with my colleagues around the country to block this effort by the federal government and protect women’s basic rights.” Madigan and the other attorneys general filed an amended complaint and a motion for preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in State of California, et al v. Alex Azar, II, et al. The action builds on the multistate coalition’s successful opposition to the federal government’s interim final rules. On December 21, 2017, the Northern District of California entered a nationwide preliminary injunction halting the implementation of the interim final rules. On December 13, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the lower court’s ruling.
Joining Madigan in the filings are the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.