Posted on 07/09/2014 2:21:27 PM PDT by NYer
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A pair of Democratic senators introduced legislation Wednesday that would overturn a recent Supreme Court ruling that defended the rights of private for-profit employers to opt out of providing insurance coverage for abortifacient drugs on religious grounds.
Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Mark Udall (D-CO) held a press conference Wednesday morning to announce the introduction of the bill, dubbed the “Protect Women's Health From Corporate Interference Act.” The bill would force for-profit employers to comply with the Obamacare birth control mandate, which requires business owners to provide employees and dependents with full, co-pay-free coverage for contraception, sterilization and abortion-causing drugs, regardless of their religious objections.
The legislation was reportedly crafted after consultation with the Obama administration, which originally issued the mandate through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The mandate has spawned hundreds of lawsuits by religious employers, including the infamous Hobby Lobby case that led to last week’s 5-4 Supreme Court decision ruling the mandate unconstitutional.
“At a time when 99 percent of sexually active women in the U.S. have used birth control, five justices decided last week that a CEO's personal views can interfere with a woman's access to this preventive service,” Sen. Murray said. “They're tired of being targeted and are looking to Congress to right this wrong by the Supreme Court.”
While it would normally be impossible for Congress to simply “overturn” a Supreme Court ruling, Senate Democrats are pinning their hopes on the fact that the high court struck the HHS mandate down on the grounds that it violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) of 1993, without explicitly mentioning the First Amendment. The RFRA bars the government from “substantially burden[ing] religious exercise without compelling justification.” Murray’s and Udall’s bill would explicitly prioritize the birth control mandate above the RFRA, making it clear that religious rights are secondary to the law.
Murray and Udall were joined at the podium by Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards and NARAL president Ilyse Hogue, who both praised the legislation.
"With this bill, Congress can begin to fix the damage done by the Supreme Court's decision to allow for-profit corporations to deny their employees birth control coverage,” said Richards. “The Supreme Court last week opened the door to a wide range of discrimination and denial of services. This bill would help close the door for denying contraception before more corporations can walk through it.”
Hogue warned legislators that failure to support the legislation could have electoral repercussions. “Not only are women mobilized. Men are mobilized. Families are mobilized," Hogue said. In an earlier statement, Hogue said company owners who fail to facilitate free access to the full range of contraceptive options, including abortifacients, are guilty of “discrimination against women in the workplace.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) vowed to take quick action on the bill.
A companion bill will soon be introduced in the House of Representatives, but chances of it coming to a vote are slim. The Republican leadership in the House supported the Supreme Court’s ruling in Hobby Lobby, with House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) calling the decision “a victory for religious freedom and another defeat for an administration that has repeatedly crossed constitutional lines in pursuit of its Big Government objectives.”
The Senate version of the bill may also face an uphill climb, if enough Republicans decide to fight it. Although Democrats are the majority in the upper chamber, they do not have enough votes to break a filibuster.
In their 5-4 ruling the Supreme Court had dismissed arguments that businesses can be forced to pay for coverage for abortifacients.
"We must next ask whether the HHS contraceptive mandate 'substantially burden[s]' the exercise of religion," the justices wrote. "We have little trouble concluding that it does."
Ping!
Seems like it is unconstitutional to require employers to provide any “fringe benefits” to employees. ??
The Democrat Party - protecting the absolute right of women to murder their unborn children since 1973.
This bill should “help” the R’s in their quest to remove Udall.
Fock the Commie pink fag ‘Rats. Total losers.
Reid could use the Nuclear Option.
These people are vile.
Rich to Senate Dems: NOH8.
Good luck losers
Grandstanding...
Will never clear the House.
That pesky 1st amendment getting in the way of Dems.
The hysteria is comical.
This is a backhanded slap at the Catholic Church and all Christians in general.
They are nothing more than bigoted people who are hiding behind a phony issue.
Here is an idea, any non-retirement age person who is not disabled and wants government bennies will not get them until they have been surgically sterlized.
No SNAP cards, no EBT without giving back a “pound of reproductive flesh”.
Don’t want to get sterilized, don’t expect government bennies...
Libs would hate this as it would destroy their future power base....
It would end welfare moms too...
And prevent welfare abortions too.
Reid certainly could use the “nuclear option” and force a vote - fine with me as it sets the precedent for when the Republicans retake the Senate. Would be totally stupid on their part, as this bill would never pass the House.
Even if it did, this exercise in futility by Democrats would likely ultimately just bring the question back to the Supremes who would then be able to rule on Constitutional grounds, and the same 5-4 split will likely go the same way.
D’s are just looking for a campaign issue. Similar to the calls on the right for impeachment - which would go nowhere with the current Senate (wait until after the election).
Does the bill include appropriations/funding? If so, it must (ha ha) originate in the House....
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