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The other states involved in the legal actions and gling financially to exercise their constitutional right
letters were Colorado, Maryland, Oregon, Vermont to access an abortion,” James said. “This decision will
and Maine. immediately stop the Trump Administration’s anti-
One of the key arguments made by James and choice assault on women’s reproductive choices and
the coalition of attorneys general has been that if will allow millions of women across New York and the
the rule, which would affect qualified health plans rest of the nation to retain control over their bodies.”
participating in state health care exchanges, would Her office’s news release also stated that the rule
“increase consumer confusion because those who “would have made it more difficult for women in
do not understand the purpose of the two separate New York and across the nation to access abortion
bills and payments may inadvertently fail to make services under the Patient Protection and Afford-
complete premium payments on time,” according able Care Act (ACA),” and said that it “threatened to
to the coalition’s January-filed complaint. potentially kick millions of women off their health
“This confusion may result in premium increases plans if they failed to comply with a technical billing
or loss of coverage, affecting almost 2.6 million enroll- issue related to abortion coverage.”
ees who receive abortion coverage through a qualified Beeler, in her 15-page opinion, wrote in part that
health plan in the 11 impacted state-based exchang- the new rule, which would have changed an Obama-
es,” the complaint states. “In the States alone, the Rule era rule affecting Section 1303 of the ACA, would
puts the coverage of over 2.2 million enrollees in the have necessitated substantial “transactional costs to
individual market at risk of coverage termination,” states, issuers, and enrollees.” And she noted that
and the “rule will have a disparate impact on women “HHS does not identify any transactional benefit.”¦
and their access to abortion care—a critically time-
sensitive and women-specific procedure.” Jason Grant is a staff writer covering legal sto-
HHS could not be reached for comment Tuesday, ries and cases for the New York Law Journal, the
and it was unclear if the agency intends to appeal National Law Journal and Law.com, and a former
Beeler’s summary judgment ruling. practicing attorney. He’s written and reported pre-
In a news release Tuesday, James declared victory. viously for the New York Times, the Star-Ledger,
“From the beginning, this rule was an egregious at- the L.A. Times and other publications. Contact
tempt by President Trump and his administration to him at [email protected]. On Twitter, please find
control women, and make it harder for those strug- him @JasonBarrGrant

CT Personal Injury Attorney
John Naizby Passes Away

By Robert Storace
Remembered as a compassionate plaintiffs per- for 27 years. Early in his career, he worked as a law-
sonal injury attorney and an avid outdoorsman yer for Allstate Insurance, representing insurers in
who once ran three Ironman races in one year, personal injury matters.
friends say John Naizby touched many lives with his Attorney Jim Gaston remembers interviewing Naiz-
humor, love of life and family, and his friendship. by to join the now-defunct Gaston & Ruane in 1998,
Naizby was 53 years old when he died of cancer where the attorney would be representing plaintiffs.
Tuesday in Branford. “I had heard only good things about John. He was
Naizby, who was based in Branford and had of- doing defense insurance work, but he really wanted
fices in New York and Florida, had been an attorney
¦ Continued on PAGE 26

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