- APFILE: Republican Missouri Senate candidate Roy Blunt responds to Democratic candidate Robin Carnahan, right, during a debate in Lake Ozark, Mo.
WASHINGTON – Democrats
and Republicans in the Senate are gearing up for first vote in what has
become a fierce fight over President Obama's mandate that health
insurers must cover the cost of contraceptives.
The Senate will vote Thursday on whether or not they want to quash the so-called "conscience" amendment authored by Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo, a measure designed to counter Obama's mandate.
The amendment would allow insurers and
employers to opt out of any provision in the president's health care law
to which they object on moral or religious grounds. That includes the
requirement to cover the cost of birth control.
Obama's policy decision was rewritten last
month under pressure from Catholic bishops and others. It now requires
health insurers to cover birth control for employees even of religiously
affiliated institutions whose beliefs conflict with contraception. As
part of his original health care overhaul, the previous policy required
employers providing health care insurance to their workers to cover
contraceptives.
The Catholic bishops and many conservatives say that still infringes on religious freedom.
The issue has started a bitter and fierce
dialogue over how much power the government should be able to wield over
religious institutions in regards to the benefits they provide their
employees, and is shaping up to be a hot topic in the 2012 election.
Politicians from both parties, eager to
rouse their respective political bases in an election year, have been
quick to slam the other side over their stance on the issue.
Republicans say Obama's requirement violates
the freedom of religion because it forces some organizations to cover
contraception even though their faith forbids it.
In a statement issued Wednesday evening,
Richard M. Doerflinger, the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities for the
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Blunt's measure has been
created to prevent religious institutions from having to choose between
honoring their beliefs and honoring their commitment to cover health
care for their employees.
He said Senate Democrats' claims that the
bill would cause 20.4 million women now receiving coverage for
preventive services to lose that coverage are "preposterous."
"The Blunt amendment does not modify state
or federal laws that are now in effect," he said. "It only amends the
new mandated benefits provisions in Title I of the Health Care Reform
Act of 2010 (PPACA), supplying the respect for religious beliefs and
moral convictions that is already part of other federal health programs,
but is woefully missing from PPACA."
However, Democrats have cast the bill as an
attempt by Republican leaders, under pressure from religious
authorities, to limit women's access to birth control.
They claim the bill is "a wolf in sheep's
clothing," and may allow employers to exclude coverage for any
conditions they find religiously or morally objectionable.
They say this could become a slippery slope, resulting in the exclusion of coverage for HIV & AIDS, mental health, hemophilia, STD's and more.
The Obama administration blasted Blunt's
amendment in a press release Wednesday, saying the president's
supporters need to "stand for a woman's right to make her own health
decisions."
"This is an issue for everyone," the release
said. "We're not about to sit back and let the other side tear down
access to better care."
Some Republicans privately grumble that
focusing on contraception insurance risks losing focus on the number one
concern among voters: the economy.
A majority of Americans support the use of
contraceptives. The public is generally in favor of mandating birth
control coverage for employees of religiously-affiliated employers,
according to a CBS News/New York Times poll February 8-13. The survey
found that 61 percent favor the mandate, while 31 percent oppose it.
Even Catholics, whose church strongly opposed the recent government
mandate, support the requirement about as much as all Americans support
it.
Late Wednesday, a slate of Republican centrists appeared uncertain how they would vote on the amendment.
"It's much broader than I could support,"
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said on MSNBC just after announcing she was
dropping her re-election bid. "I think we should focus on the issue of
contraceptives and whether or not it should be included in a health
insurance plan, and what requirements there should be."
Fox News' Trish Turner and The Associated Press contributed to this report
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/01/first-senate-vote-looms-on-obama-birth-control-policy/#ixzz1nrf91IUH
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