Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) vows to fight against those who would try to limit women’s access to birth control.
Speaking from the Senate floor on Tuesday, Warren stated
“I will never stop fighting the efforts of backward-looking ideologues that want to cut women’s access to birth control. We’ve lived in that world and we are not going back there, not ever.”
As reported by The Hill, “Warren’s comments came a day before the Senate is scheduled to hold a procedural vote on a bill that would reverse the recent Supreme Court ruling that allows employers to deny birth control coverage for women.”
Warren wrote on her blog last week that she was “stunned” by the recent Hobby Lobby ruling, “stunned that the Court would establish precedent for one enormous slippery slope on letting employers deny individuals health coverage for any medical treatment.”
Warren elaborated on the pending bill, writing:
“Led by Senators Patty Murray and Mark Udall, we’ve just introduced a new bill – the Protect Women’s Health from Corporate Interference Act. The bill reverses the Supreme Court’s decision by making it clear that employers cannot deny access to any of the health benefits required by the ACA – not immunizations, not blood transfusions, not HIV treatments, and not birth control – while preserving reasonable accommodations for religiously exempt employers.
If we’re going to respond to Hobby Lobby, it’s got to be through a legislative fix. And if the Republicans won’t fight for the women they represent, then we’re going to take that fight to them. Let them explain why they think employers should decide what health care a woman can get covered by her insurance .”
Additionally, Warren stated on Tuesday her belief that the government shutdown last October was due to Republicans wanting to deny women access to birth control.
In 2012, the Republicans tried to pass the Blunt amendment, a proposal that would have allowed employers and insurance companies to deny women access to health care services based on any vague moral objections.
Democrats said ‘no.’ The president said ‘no.’ The American people said ‘no’ to this offensive idea.
But instead of listening to the American people, Republicans in Washington doubled down.
Remember last year’s government shutdown that nearly tanked our economy? That fight started with a GOP effort to hold the whole operation of the federal government hostage in order to try to force Democrats and the president to let employers deny workers access to birth control.
Well, we rejected the hostage-taking. Democrats said ‘no.’ The president said ‘no.’ The American people said ‘no’ to this offensive idea.
You can watch Senator Warren, below, speaking on Tuesday about last year’s shutdown.
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