Senator Gillibrand: Standing Strong Against The Extreme Blunt Amendment
Standing Strong Against The Extreme Blunt Amendment
by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
In recent weeks, I've said repeatedly that I was dumb-founded that in 2012 we are actually debating whether women should have access to contraception. I had no idea Id be even more dumb-founded today, when, instead of coming together to fix our economy and strengthen the middle class, the Senate is considering a measure so extreme that it would allow any employer - religious or secular - to deny their employees coverage of any preventive service, including contraception, mammogramsanything the employer deems unfit to be covered.
Let me say this once and for all: the power to decide whether to use contraception or any other preventive care service should be up to each individual woman, not her boss.
Of course, the Blunt Amendment is just the latest attack on womens health from the far right wing in Congress. Whether its their attempt to defund Planned Parenthood or to roll back a common sense preventive care provisions in the Affordable Care Act, make no mistake about it, this concerted effort to reduce womens access to essential preventive care demonstrates a callous disregard for the health and safety of women.
Attacks like these are why Senator Boxer and I started One Million Strong For Women, to build a grassroots movement of Americans fed up with the far rights attempts to undermine womens health. Weve been joined by several champions in the Senate including Senator Schumer, Senator Reid, Senator Franken, Senator Blumenthal, Senator Murray, the DSCC as well as over 260,000 of you. I hope youll add your voice today as well.
Lets be clear. Neither the recent controversy over the HHS contraception rule or this week's Blunt Amendment has anything to do with religious freedom. You dont have to take it from me, just ask Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. In the majority decision of the 1990 case Employment Division v. Smith, Justice Scalia wrote, We have never held that an individuals religious beliefs excuse him from compliance with an otherwise valid law prohibiting that the State is free to regulate.
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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/01/1069726/-Standing-Strong-Against-The-Extreme-Blunt-Amendment