Birth control exemption bill, the ‘Blunt amendment,’ killed in Senate
J. Scott Applewhite/AP - Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo)
*
By N. C. Aizenman and Rosalind S. Helderman, Updated: Thursday, March 1,
12:10 PM
By a largely party-line vote, the Senate on Thursday blocked a move to exempt
virtually any employer with moral objections from the Obama administration’s
controversial birth control health coverage rule.
The measure, an amendment proposed by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to a highway
funding bill, was tabled—and therefore effectively killed—by a vote of 51 to
48.
Only one Republican Senator, Olympia Snowe of Maine voted against the measure.
Three Democratic senators supported it, Robert Casey (Pa.),
Joe Manchin (W.V.), and Ben Nelson (Neb.).
The measure was among
the most sweeping of several congressional efforts to broaden the
current religious exemption in the birth control rule, which only fully
exempts explicitly religious organizations such as churches from its
requirement that worker health plans include contraceptive coverage with no
out-of-pocket charges.
Under the Blunt amendment, not only
would church-affiliated organizations such as Catholic hospitals,
universities, schools and charities have been free to opt out of the
coverage, any non-religious employer with a moral objection would have
qualified.
The amendment would also have allowed such employers to refuse to cover any
other preventive procedures required under the
administration’s rule if they had a religious or moral objection.
The rule has sparked a national debate about the limits of religious freedom.
Churches
have always been exempt from the mandate, but Catholic and other
religious leaders had complained that the rule would force
church-affiliated institutions to pay for health services that violated
their beliefs.
Trying to defuse the controversy, the Obama administration last month said it
would amend the rule. Under the revised version, women who work for such
organizations would still be guaranteed
contraceptive coverage, but they would obtain it directly from their
insurance companies, which would not be allowed to charge additional
premiums.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops remains opposed to that compromise.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/birth-control-exemption-bill-the-blunt-amendment-killed-in-senate/2012/03/01/gIQA4tXjkR_story.html
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