August 15, 2025
Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images via Sipa USA
A federal judge sided with New Jersey and Pennsylvania by striking down Trump administration rules allowing employers to opt out of contraceptive mandates. This file photo shows packs of birth control pills.
A federal judge this week sided with New Jersey and Pennsylvania by striking down Trump administration regulations that allowed employers citing religious or moral grounds to opt out of contraceptive mandates under the Affordable Care Act.
Judge Wendy Beetlestone, chief judge of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, called the rules 'arbitrary and capricious,' and said the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury acted without the analysis required by law and failed to consider alternatives.
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'Indeed, in the face of prior, contradictory findings that contraception is safe and effective, and without evidence to refute said conclusions, the Agencies' change-in-position 'runs counter to the evidence,'' Beetlestone wrote in Wednesday's 55-page ruling.
Those rules are now 'vacated in their entirety,' she wrote.
Attorney General Matt Platkin said in a statement that he is 'gratified' by the ruling, which comes eight years after the two states first filed their complaint against the Trump administration.
'We are proud to stand up for access to contraceptive care in New Jersey, and we will continue to fight back against the federal government's callous attempts to make it harder for women to access basic reproductive health care,' he said.
The Little Sisters of the Poor order of nuns intervened in the lawsuit as a defendant and argued that the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate is unconstitutional. Beetlestone said the nuns' arguments 'fall well outside the scope of the matter' and noted that the Little Sisters cannot raise those points without either party challenging the mandate itself.
Mark Rienzi, lead attorney for the Little Sisters, told Catholic Standard that it would appeal.
'The district court blessed an out-of-control effort by Pennsylvania and New Jersey to attack the Little Sisters and religious liberty,' Rienzi said.
Under the Affordable Care Act, colloquially known as Obamacare, most employers' plans must provide cost-free contraceptive services for women. Employers could opt out under narrow exemptions largely meant for churches.
During President Donald Trump's first term, his administration issued rules to expand those exemptions to include nearly any for-profit and nonprofit that cited objections, and created a new 'moral exemption.' New Jersey and Pennsylvania sued the administration in 2017 to strike them down, saying they would increase costs for publicly funded contraceptive programs.
The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 2020. In a 7-2 decision, the justices found the Trump administration had the authority to promulgate religious and moral exemptions to the contraceptive mandate. The matter was remanded to Beetlestone for further proceedings.
In Wednesday's ruling, Beetlestone said the moral exemption was based on a factor 'Congress has not intended' the agencies to consider, and that the religious rule couldn't be justified under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a 1993 federal law intended to protect religious minorities.
She noted that Congress rejected an amendment to the Affordable Care Act that would have allowed for moral objections, because it would not have subjected religious-based objections to the judicial scrutiny mandated by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
New Jersey Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence T. McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com.
