A federal judge in Texas has ruled that an Obamacare provision mandating employer-run insurance cover the cost of certain preventative HIV medication is unconstitutional, in what has become the latest front of a longstanding conservative effort to pare back key societal protections under the guise of religious freedom.
In their initial complaint, filed in the spring of 2020, attorneys representing a group of plaintiffs argued that the Affordable Care Act rule requiring coverage for pre-exposure prophylaxis (“PrEP”) drugs intended to mitigate the HIV virus was unconstitutional, as it “forces religious employers to provide coverage for drugs that facilitate and encourage homosexual behavior, prostitution, sexual promiscuity, and intravenous drug use.”
