The Trump administration’s recently proposed rule change to make it easier for businesses to get out of providing insurance coverage for contraception for religious reasons is so wrongheaded it would be laughable if not for the harm it would do to women and families. The rule questions the very premise that access to contraception is an important preventative health care service that the government has a compelling interest to mandate.

Yes, you read that correctly. Trump’s proposed rule regarding the Affordable Health Care Act’s requirement that insurance plans cover contraception spends an unbelievable amount of time questioning whether the government has a compelling interest in policies that help women time and plan their pregnancies to optimize maternal and infant health. The draft memo, in essence, concludes pregnancy doesn’t have enough to do with a woman’s health for the government to mandate insurance companies pay for contraception.

Trump’s administration could be forgiven had it launched a legitimate debate about First Amendment rights and tried to create a clear, bright-line rule defining who can be granted a religious exemption from the requirement that insurance cover contraception.

Read more at The Denver Post.