David Y. Ige

HONOLULU – Hawaii Attorney General Clare E. Connors joined a coalition of 15 attorneys general, in urging the Trump Administration to immediately comply with the court-ordered injunction in California v.Azar. The injunction secured by a California-led coalition earlier this year, in addition to an injunction secured by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, halted the Trump Administration’s attempt to strip access to cost-free birth control coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Despite the clear injunction from the court, the Trump Administration has yet to update its website and inform the public about the injunction and its impact on their contraceptive coverage.

“The Federal government is not in compliance with the court-ordered injunction,” said Attorney General Connors. “Multiple federal agencies are in violation and doing a disservice to the country.”

Since the ACA’s Women’s Health Amendment was put into place in 2012, 62 million women have benefitted from this provision. On October 6, 2017, the Trump Administration issued ill-conceived rules that allowed virtually any employer to deny women cost-free birth control guaranteed by the Affordable Care Act. A coalition of attorneys general, led by California, secured a nationwide injunction in December of 2017. Nearly a year later, the Trump Administration issued final rules that were nearly identical to the interim final rules. The California-led coalition quickly challenged the rule and secured yet another injunction, protecting access to birth control for millions of women across the country.

Despite that injunction being in place, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor websites state that employers can opt out of providing contraceptive coverage, in violation of the court orders. Further, another HHS webpage lists all of the preventive services mandated under the ACA, but does not include contraceptive coverage.

In today’s letter, led by California Attorney General Becerra, Attorney General Connors, along with the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington, urged the Trump Administration to comply with the injunction.

The letter can be found here.

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For more information, contact:

 

Krishna F. Jayaram

Special Assistant to the Attorney General

(808) 586-1284

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://ag.hawaii.gov

Twitter: @ATGHIgov