[JURIST] The Trump administration announced [letter, PDF] in a letter to state Medicaid directors on Friday that it will be rescinding the Obama administration’s guidance [letter, PDF] that made it more difficult for state Medicaid programs to refuse to cover birth control and other reproductive health services.

Obama’s 2016 guidance said that “Providing the full range of women’s health services neither disqualifies a provider from participating in the Medicaid program, nor is the provision of such services inconsistent with the best interests of the beneficiary, and shall not be grounds for a state’s action against a provider in the Medicaid program.”

The Trump administration said [official website] that Obama’s guidance may have gone beyond “merely interpreting” a statute, which is in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. The Trump Administration says it is “restoring state flexibility” to the Medicaid programs by returning the policy to how it was prior to 2016.