Houston Baptist University cheers Trump administration birth control decision

Houston Baptist University cheered the Trump administration's decision to pare back pieces of the Affordable Care Act. Houston Baptist University cheered the Trump administration's decision to pare back pieces of the Affordable Care Act. Photo: Mayra Beltran, Houston Chronicle Photo: Mayra Beltran, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Houston Baptist University cheers Trump administration birth control decision 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

The president of Houston Baptist University cheered the Trump administration's decision to allow more employers to withhold birth control coverage for religious or moral objections.

The Department of Health and Human Services' policy stripped back pieces of President Barack Obama's health care law that required most companies to cover birth control at no additional cost.

HBU said in a press release that it would no longer have to provide health insurance that includes "medications and devices that may act as abortifacients as well as sterilization procedures" under the Trump administration's new guidelines.

HBU won a preliminary victory in 2016 when the U.S. Supreme Court urged lower courts to reconsider the Affordable Care Act provision that required religious nonprofits to give their employees free access to federally approved contraception.

The case originated when HBU challenged the requirement in 2013. While the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas supported HBU, an appeals court overturned the decision, sending the case to the Supreme Court.

"We are glad the government has finally listened to the Supreme Court," HBU President Dr. Robert Sloan said in a statement. "Our mission has always been driven by our faith, and all we have ever wanted was to live out that faith in every aspect of what we do."

Conservative Republicans last weekend called the Trump administration's decision a step to promote religious liberty. Democrats and women's-rights advocates called it discriminatory toward women, and some threatened legal action.

The Trump administration has estimated that some 200 employers who have already voiced objections to the Obama-era policy would qualify for the expanded opt-out, and that 120,000 women would be affected.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report. Lindsay Ellis writes about higher education for the Chronicle. You can follow her on Twitter and send her tips at lindsay.ellis@chron.com.