The Hill News

I think I realized how worried the Republicans are about recent improvements in the economy when I watched Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) take to the House floor this week to discuss birth control. That’s right, birth control. Boehner’s and other Republicans’ fury is over a recently announced HHS rule requiring most employers to cover contraception in their health plans with no cost-sharing. There is an exemption for churches and houses of worship, but religious affiliated institutions like universities and hospitals that employ many people of different beliefs have to comply. Similar rules are already in place in 28 states, including Massachusetts. The HHS rule simply extends the same access to affordable contraception to women in every state.
                                                  
This is so troubling to John Boehner that in a rare floor speech he declared that if The White House won’t act t! o reverse this rule, Congress will “on behalf of the American people.” Well, Mr. Speaker, the American people actually support the rule. So you would be acting against the will of the people. Polling by the Public Religion Research Institute found that a majority of Americans support this policy, including Catholics. Furthermore, according to the Guttmacher Institute, 98 percent of Catholic women have used birth control at some point in their lives. There is nothing new or earth shattering about this rule, many Catholic institutions already make contraception coverage available in their health plans.  So charges by some that this is an attack on religious institutions or religious freedom are simply bogus.

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