by Timothy Jost

President Trump has been in office for slightly over 100 days, but over that time has issued the most executive orders (EO) of any president since Truman. On May 4, 2017 he issued yet another executive order – Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty.

After stating the Trump administration’s support for religious freedom, the EO addresses two substantive issues. The first such provision directs the Internal Revenue Service not to take adverse action against a religious organization that speaks about a moral or political issue from a religious perspective where similar speech has “not ordinarily been treated as participation or intervention in a political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) a candidate for political office.”

The second substantive provision addresses “Conscience Protections with Respect to Preventive Care Mandate.” It states:

The Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall consider issuing amended regulations, consistent with applicable law, to address conscience-based objections to the preventive care mandate promulgated under section 300gg-13(a)(4) of title 42, United States Code.

The cite is to the subsection of the preventive services mandate section of the Affordable Care Act that refers specifically to preventive care and services for women and is obviously aimed at the contraceptive mandate. This has been the most controversial single issue presented by the ACA, other than the individual mandate. It has spawned about a hundred lawsuits, which tied up the Obama administration for half a decade. This post analyzes the background for the Trump EO provision and its potential impact. Read more via Health Affairs