by Sarah Tarver
News editor
The Senate voted to table, or postpone, the amendment to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, On March 1. The amendment would allow employers the ability to opt out of providing, through insurance, birth control to their employees.
According to the Senate website, http://www.senate.gov, the vote on this amendment to Obamacare, which was proposed by Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt (R), was almost split Republicans versus Democrats, with only one Republican voting for the tabling and three Democrats voting against it. The vote will go to the House, but first it is being taken to the Supreme Court.
According to Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl’s (R) website, http://kyl.senate.gov/, “Forty-two of my Senate colleagues and I have filed a friend of the court brief with the Supreme Court, arguing against the constitutionality of the individual mandate. Thirty-six of us have also filed a brief arguing that, if the individual mandate is struck down, ObamaCare in its entirety must fall.”
According to the Supreme Court’s, http://www.supremecourt.gov/, the arguments began March 26 and continued through March 28. The transcripts and documents are available at http://www.supremecourt.gov/.
Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown law student, spoke to a democratic congressional committee about the contraceptive debate, mainly stating that the cost of birth control is too high and should therefore be covered by insurance, companies and employers.
There are a large number of people who support Fluke, including a Facebook group created for that purpose.
Fluke has also been criticized heavily, being called a slut and a prostitute by Rush Limbaugh, a radio personality who often comments on political issues during his shows. Limbaugh did later apologize for the demeaning remarks.
One of the comments against her argument is that there are places that provide free birth control, and therefore would not cost the astronomical prices that Fluke was quoting.
According to Nurse April Lehrling oral birth control is frequently used as a form of hormone therapy because of its non-contraceptive health benefits. Birth control is used to treat hormonal imbalances, diseases such as endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome, as well as many others. It is also used to treat depression if the underlying cause of the depression is hormonal.
If a woman is taking birth control to treat polycystic ovarian syndrome, then she needs a specific combination of the hormones, which may or may not be the free version that is readily available, causing the woman to spend money.
The Arizona Senate Judiciary Committee voted 6-2 to push Arizona House Bill 2625, permitting employers to require their employees to provide proof of medical prescription if they seek contraceptives for any reasons other than the traditional reproductive purposes, to a vote.
This would mean that if someone needs the hormones to treat a disease such as endometriosis, the employer would be able to require that the employee provide medical proof that she needs the hormones.
According to an article on the Arizona State University newspaper website, statepress.com, one of the main arguments against this bill is that it imposes on the rights of women by forcing them to share their medical records in order to receive the medication they need.
In 2002, Arizona passed the Contraceptive Equity Law, which prohibits religious employers from denying their employees contraceptives as long as the medication is being used for non-contraceptive purposes.
The main difference between the law passed in Arizona and the section in Obamacare is that Obamacare does not apply only to non-contraceptive uses.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures website, http://www.ncsl.org, 26 states have laws stating that if insurance covers prescription drugs then it must also cover any FDA approved contraceptive, “Michigan and Montana—require insurance coverage of contraceptives as a result of administrative ruling or an Attorney General opinion. Texas and Virginia—require that employers be offered the option to include coverage of contraceptives within their health plans,” and 21 states have exceptions for insurers or employers within the policies, mainly for religious reasons.
Oklahoma does not currently have any laws or statutes regarding insurance covering birth control.