COURTS/ELECTION/HEALTHCARE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WOMEN: “Having lost in two federal courts and fearing more setbacks, the Trump administration is revising rules that allow employers to deny women insurance coverage for contraceptives based on religious or moral objections. Administration officials hope that the changes, the details of which remain unclear, will overcome the judges’ objections without fundamentally altering the purpose or the effects of the rules. White House officials have cleared the revised rules so they can be issued jointly by the secretary of health and human services, Alex M. Azar II; Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta; and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. It is unclear whether the administration intends to issue the final rules before the midterm elections next week. Opinion polls suggest that the birth control benefit, mandated by the Obama administration under the Affordable Care Act, is popular.”
–Robert Pear, “Trump Administration to Revise Birth Control Exemptions in Hopes of Saving Them,” The New York Times online, October 30, 2018