Women’s Restricted Healthcare Rights Bill Defeated Thursday

A bill to limit women’s access to contraception and other preventive health services was defeated in the Senate today by a narrow margin of 51 to 48. 

Sponsored by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), the amendment would have allowed any employer or health plan, whether religious or secular, to deny women and their families access to a wide range of preventive and life-saving health care, based on the employer’s or insurer’s “moral” objections.  The amendment would have included mammograms, contraception, maternity care, mental health services, and even emergency room care.

"Democrats have fought back and defeated this extreme proposal to hand over a woman's personal health care decisions to her employer," declared Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) after the vote, according to a written statement released Thursday.  “Under the Blunt Amendment, women don’t get rights, they get restrictions.”

On Thursday MSNBC.com reported that Mitt Romney first said he opposed the amendment and later said he supported it.

“Adding to the embarrassment for Romney was the fact that Blunt is his most prominent supporter in the Senate,” stated the article. Romney told a Boston radio host, ‘Of course Roy Blunt, who is my liaison to the Senate, is someone I support and of course I support that amendment’.”

Under the health reform law, 628,000 New Jersey women would have risked being denied preventive health care coverage had the amendment passed.   

Leading the opposition to the Blunt proposal, Sen. Barbara Boxer, (D-Calif) said “right wing Republicans” were “trying to take away women’s health care.”

Sen. Kelly Ayotte, (R-NH) stated, “If we allow the government to dictate the coverage and plans paid for by a religious institution, that’s the first step down a slippery slope.”