The department of Health and Human Services instated two new rules that roll back Obamacare’s mandated birth control coverage Friday.
The rule allow employers with a “moral” or “religious” objection to stop covering contraception for their employees.
The rules will go into effect immediately.
The new rules, one for religious and the other for moral objections, would greatly broaden the ability of employers, universities, religious institutions, and even health insurers themselves, to opt-out of covering birth control.
Senior HHS officials estimate that “no more” 120,000 women would lose contraception coverage under this rule.
Officials, in a conference call with reporters Friday, maintained that “99.9 percent” of women would maintain contraception coverage under the new rules and not take advantage of the new exceptions.
According to Planned Parenthood, a prescription for the birth control pill can cost $50 per month (or $600 a year) without insurance. Other long-acting, reversible birth controls like IUDs are more expensive.