karadinart (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
karadinart) wrote2013-09-29 10:09 pm
karadinart) wrote2013-09-29 10:09 pm
House tacks on last-minute anti contraceptive clause into spending bill
House Republicans included a so-called “conscience clause” in the government funding bill in a plan they approved early Sunday.
The House voted 231-192 on a bill that would delay much of the 2010 health care overhaul for a year. It would also repeal a tax on medical devices that helps finance the health care law.
The measure would allow employers and insurers to opt out of providing health care services that they find morally or religiously objectionable. The addition reignites the debate over a portion of the health care reform law that requires most insurers to cover women’s preventative health care, including contraception. CNN reports that the provision would allow them to opt out of coverage for the next year.
The provision was added iduring a House Rules Committee meeting on Saturday evening.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) didn’t know Republicans had added the provision into the bill, even as the House was already debating the rule for bringing it up.
Incidentally, Republicans had already pressured the Obama adminstration in 2010 to extend federal abortion restrictions into the Affordable Healthcare Act, leading to states with Republican-ruled legislatures to pass new restrictions on access and insurance coverage of abortion services to an all time high, going from 5 states with restrictions to 23 and counting.
The automatic spending cuts that will take effect under sequestration will already compromise programs that disproportionately impact women, including slashing $86 million from critical family planning and reproductive health services. But that’s not enough for Republican lawmakers, who want to use the upcoming budget negotiations as yet another opportunity to keep attacking women’s health:
The House voted 231-192 on a bill that would delay much of the 2010 health care overhaul for a year. It would also repeal a tax on medical devices that helps finance the health care law.
The measure would allow employers and insurers to opt out of providing health care services that they find morally or religiously objectionable. The addition reignites the debate over a portion of the health care reform law that requires most insurers to cover women’s preventative health care, including contraception. CNN reports that the provision would allow them to opt out of coverage for the next year.
The provision was added iduring a House Rules Committee meeting on Saturday evening.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) didn’t know Republicans had added the provision into the bill, even as the House was already debating the rule for bringing it up.
Incidentally, Republicans had already pressured the Obama adminstration in 2010 to extend federal abortion restrictions into the Affordable Healthcare Act, leading to states with Republican-ruled legislatures to pass new restrictions on access and insurance coverage of abortion services to an all time high, going from 5 states with restrictions to 23 and counting.
The automatic spending cuts that will take effect under sequestration will already compromise programs that disproportionately impact women, including slashing $86 million from critical family planning and reproductive health services. But that’s not enough for Republican lawmakers, who want to use the upcoming budget negotiations as yet another opportunity to keep attacking women’s health:
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