(Oakland, CA – Insurance News 360) – In late December, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted a preliminary injunction in the case of State of California v. Wright. This decision is the second ruling against the Trump Administration’s regulations to allow employers not to cover contraceptives against the mandate of the Affordable Care Act.  The first injunction against the President’s regulations came from a court in Pennsylvania in early December. Both rulings showed that the federal government did not comply with the Administrative Procedures Act in promulgating its Interim Final Rule. In addition, the Pennsylvania decision also based its ruling on the additional grounds of the likelihood of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania prevailing on its substantive challenge to the Interim Final Rule. That decision noted that the regulations “contradict the text of the statute that they purport to interpret.”

In November, California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones submitted a declaration that the rule would harm women who were denied access to contraceptives.

“Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, health insurance policies must cover contraceptives. Tens of millions of women across the nation benefit from the ACA provision that requires health insurance coverage of contraceptives without any co-pays or deductibles,” Jones wrote.

“Before the ACA was in effect, I spoke to women who could not always afford to fill their prescriptions for contraceptives. President Trump’s regulations would prevent some women from being able to make fundamental decisions about reproductive health care for themselves. Trump’s rule, if allowed to stand, would deprive women of their rights and access to basic health care services, while increasing the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions. Women will suffer serious and irreparable harm if these rules are in place and we will continue to do everything in our power to prevent that from occurring.”

Source: California Department of Insurance.