In a latest executive order, US President Donald Trump on Friday rolled back an ObamaCare policy that require employers include birth-control coverage in their health insurance plans. The Obama signature health provision mandated that employers, with a few exceptions, offer health insurance that covers birth control without a co-pay.

The executive order which takes effect immediately, thus afford any employer or insurer, including colleges, universities and health insurance companies, to stop following the birth control mandate on moral and religious grounds, as against the previous exemption only for houses of worship and some companies.

Officials on a press call shortly after the announcement disclosed that, employers will not have to file anything with the government to stop offering the birth-control coverage; instead, they simply have to notify their employees of the decision.

Shortly after Trump’s executive order, recently resigned HHS Secretary Tom Price vowed he would take “action in short order to follow the president’s instruction to safeguard the deeply held religious beliefs of Americans who provide health insurance to their employees.”

The decision, considered to be a big win for social conservatives, a staunch Trump supporting voting bloc in the presidential election, will provide “relief” to groups that have been engaged in legal battles over the mandate since its inception in 2012, says a Senior HHS official who declared anonymity.

Another HHS official said: “We should have space for organizations to live out their religious ideas and not face discrimination because of their religious ideas. That was the case beforehand, and that ends today”.

Gleaning from the 200 entities that have participated in lawsuits against the federal government over the mandate, the officials argued that 99.9 percent of women won’t be affected by the rule – an assertion aimed at dismissing fears that move could potentially impact millions of Americans who now receive birth control with no co-payments.

However, the new executive has sparked controversies and criticism and could draw lawsuits in the following days. Amongst the leagues of entities which could pan the order are the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Women’s Law Center which told the Hill earlier in May that they would consider legal action if the Trump administration rolled back the mandate.

Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the NFL said: “Today’s outrageous rules by the Trump Administration show callous disregard for women’s rights, health, and autonomy. By taking away women’s access to no-cost birth control coverage, the rules give employers a license to discriminate against women”.

“This will leave countless women without the critical birth control coverage they need to protect their health and economic security. We will take immediate legal steps to block these unfair and discriminatory rules”, she added.

Also, a ranking Democrat on the Senate Health Committee, Sen. Patty Murray said: “This is wrong, it’s outrageous, and I will be pushing every Republican who claims to care about women’s health and economic security to join me in fighting back against it”.