Hello, fellow law nerds.

Welcome to your first 2019 episode of Boom Lawyer, a rewire.

News podcast hosted by the legal journalism team that is pretty sure that 2019 is drunk already.

If the news is any indication. I'm Imani

Gandhi and I'm Jess Piclo. Rewire. News is dedicated to bringing you the best reproductive rights

and social justice news, commentary, and analysis on the web. And the team legal podcast is part

of that mission. So a big thanks to our subscribers and a

welcome to our new listeners. Welcome to our new listeners and welcome to 2019 and Jess.

Yeah? You and I have been friends for a while now, like seven years, eight years. At least.

Yeah. At least. And I mean, I think you could probably say that our friendship was forged in the fires of the birth control benefit, also known as the contraception mandate, right?

Oh, God, it's true.

I mean, so what?

We've been writing and discussing the birth control benefit for something like going on seven years now.

I mean, remember those days when we

used to be upset with the Obama administration because they were cowtowing to the religious right?

I honestly would kill to go back to the time when I was annoyed with Obama for continuing to

compromise with the religious right because at least he gave a shit about the contraception mandate,

aka the birth control benefit.

And as frustrating as it was to watch the Obama administration play footsie

with the religious right,

he was committed to providing co-pay-free contraceptive coverage

in private health insurance plans, right?

...