A rule finalising the religious exemption to the contraceptive mandate should be "the end of a long cultural war fight" over the issue and confirm that the US government "never needed nuns to give out contraceptives" to women, said the president of the Becket law firm.

Commenting in a press call to reporters on November 8, Mark Rienzi said the rule issued a day earlier by the US Department of Health and Human Services "should be welcomed by people of good faith" on all sides of the issue.

In a joint statement on November 9, the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the chairman of its Committee for Religious Liberty applauded the Trump administration's decision "to finalise common-sense regulations" for religious employers.