Washington sues Trump over contraception controversy

Washington state is suing the Trump administration over the president’s new rules limiting women’s access to contraception.

RELATED: Ferguson sued Obama administration twice

“President Trump’s contraception rules are unfair, unlawful, and unconstitutional,” said Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson. “I refuse to let President Trump disregard our laws and our constitution in an effort to deny women access to contraception.”

Ferguson filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday, saying that the administration’s new rules will allow any company or organization to deny contraception coverage to women on religious or moral grounds. The attorney general argues that this violates the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution. He is asking the court to halt the rules and declare them unlawful.

According to the attorney general’s office:

The rules violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment by requiring individuals to bear the burdens of religions to which they do not belong. For example, the rules permit a for-profit business to impose the costs of its owner’s anti-contraception beliefs on employees who do not share those beliefs.

Only women, and not men, may have their contraceptive coverage denied based on their employer’s religious or moral objection. By making a gender-based distinction without sufficient justification, the rules violate the equal protection guarantee implicit in the Fifth Amendment.

The state also argues that the contraception rules violate protections under the Affordable Care Act, the Civil Rights Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act (Trump issued the rules without proper notice or a period for public comment).

Contraception coverage

The attorney general’s office states that Trump’s rules would affect more than 1.5 million Washington workers and their dependents receiving insurance through private employers. The office argues that denying this no-cost contraception coverage will cause these workers to switch to state-funded programs. In 2016, the state funded reproductive health services for more than 90,000 people, saving an estimated $160 million in birth-related costs.

Ferguson has filed lawsuits against the Trump administration more than a dozen times this year over issues such as Trump’s travel ban, DACA, and energy / pollution standards.

Under Ferguson, Washington sued the Obama administration twice.

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