Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has joined another lawsuit against the Trump administration, this time challenging its efforts to increase birth-control exemptions under the Affordable Care Act.
The legal action was one Weiser, a Democrat, promised in January to join.
The lawsuit is currently pending in federal court in California, and includes more than a dozen other states and the District of Columbia.
“I believe those rules are not justified by the law,” Weiser told reporters earlier this year. “They are a threat to the rule of law and they hurt Coloradans who depend on this access to birth control.”
The Trump administration is seeking to broaden employers’ exemptions from offering birth control, as mandated by President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, on the basis of religion and morality. The policy has been halted by federal courts, but the White House is appealing.
Weiser earlier this month signed Colorado onto another lawsuit with more than 20 other states challenging the administration’s so-called “gag rule” barring health clinics that get Title X funding from referring or discussing an abortion with a patient.
Earlier this week, Weiser and Gov. Jared Polis sued the Trump administration over its decision to withhold $2.7 million in law enforcement grant money because of the state’s refusal to cooperate with federal immigration agents.