The Catholic Church says it does not support having to provide insurance coverage for contraception … now proposals at the state and federal level look to make sure they don’t. Our own Senator Roy Blunt is sponsoring the amendment on Capitol Hill that would prevent employers from being forced to provide coverage for birth control.
Meanwhile, proposals at the state level reach even farther with a bill headed to the full senate, sponsored by Sen. John Lamping (R-St. Louis County), would exempt employers from paying for birth control, abortions or sterilization procedures.
Governor Nixon dowplays the importance of that legislation, saying Missouri already has a strong moral exemption on the books that was passed a number of years ago.
“And so it think its an area we have already legislated,” he says. “I think it’s a good law; it’s important and the proper place for us to be.”
Planned Parenthood reports that the full price for contraceptive prescriptions is about $50 a month. Surgical abortion and sterilization procedures, though, cost thousands.
Lamping says his measure would not make it more difficult for women to get birth control pills, nor is his bill an effort to deny a woman’s health care. He says reaffirming religious freedom and the conscience clause is the only acceptable compromise.
Assistant House minority leader Tishaura Jones (D-St. Louis) disagrees, saying, “For others to say that this (the Obama administration rule) is a religious attack is bogus. This is about a woman’s right to have access to birth control. A woman should have the right to plan when she has children.”