The Alabama Center for Law and Liberty (ACLL) filed a comment on Monday opposing the Biden administration’s suggested repeal of a rule protecting companies with moral objections to abortion-inducing drugs.
ACLL President Matt Clark filed the comment on behalf of the ACLL and the Alabama Policy Institute (API). Like other organizations affected by the proposed rule change, both conservative nonprofits are not officially religious organizations but are morally opposed to abortion.
Through the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Congress delegated authority to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to craft rules about when employers had to cover drugs that could be used to perform abortions. Under the Trump administration, the DHHS permitted religious organizations and companies not explicitly religious to opt out for moral reasons. President Joe Biden suggested rescinding the exemption for private companies earlier this year.
“There are many companies in the United States that are pro-life but might not fit neatly into the category of a religious organization,” Clark said. “ACLL is one of them. We filed our comment today to tell the Biden administration that there are organizations out there that will actually be hurt by the repeal of the moral exemption.”
The ACLL and API were not the only organizations to chime in on this issue across the country. The Ethics & Public Policy Center (EPPC), the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the American Center for Law and Justice, Americans United For Life, the Catholic Medical Association, the Christian Employers Alliance, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the Family Policy Alliance, the Heritage Foundation and the Thomas More Society also submitted public comments.
Twenty-six members of Congress submitted comments as well, including Alabama’s Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville).
“Despite many introduced bills, Congress has never directed the Departments to impose a contraceptive mandate,” the EPPC scholars wrote in their comment. “Nevertheless, the Departments claim that they have a compelling interest in providing seamless access to contraceptive services. Yet they fail to identify a single woman who is unable to obtain access to contraception because of the religious and moral exemptions…. The proposed revocation of the moral exemption is gratuitous and un-American.”
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