Birth Control Hearing, etc

I haven’t been very good about posting updates on the birth control coverage debacle lately and I don’t want to clog up people’s dashes with relatively old-ish news, so I’m just going to make one large post of the situation thus far. Everything is from ThinkProgress, newest information first. As always, this will effect more people than just cis women.

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ROMNEY LIES ABOUT OBAMA’S BIRTH CONTROL RULE IN MICHIGAN | Mitt Romney misled a voter in Shelby Township, Michigan about President Obama’s rule requiring insurers and employers to provide contraception coverage to employees during a town hall Tuesday afternoon. Romney grossly misrepresented the measure, claiming that under the new requirement, “the Catholic Church had to provide for insurance that provided contraceptives, sterilization, morning after pills to the employees of the Church.” But as Romney himself has previously admitted, both the original provision and the modified language specifically excludes houses of worship and nonprofit organizations that primarily employ people of the same faith from providing birth control coverage. Watch the video:

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67 PERCENT OPPOSE BLUNT’S HEALTH AMENDMENT | According to a Daily Kos/SEIU Weekly State of the Nation Poll, roughly two-thirds of Americans oppose Sen. Roy Blunt’s (R-MO) amendment, which would allow employers to deny coverage of health services to their employees on the basis of their personal moral objections. When asked whether “employers should be allowed to deny health care coverage to their employees for doctor-recommended health care services if those services are contrary to the employer’s religious beliefs or moral convictions,” 67 percent of the 1000 registered voters polled believed that “all workers should be allowed to access health care services regardless of their employer’s beliefs.” The poll, which was conducted by Public Policy Polling for Daily KOS & SEIU, uses original language included within the Blunt amendment. The poll found that support for the bill was astonishingly low within all demographics save for the Tea Party, 51 percent of whom said they favored the measure. 

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK: The GOP’s ‘Utterly Surreal’ Contraception Hearing

The House Committee On Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing yesterday on the Obama administration’s now-revised ruling that all employers must cover contraception in their employee health insurance policies, including some religiously-affiliated ones.

The hearing succeeding in becoming one of the more bizarre and obtuse displays in recent political theater. Highlights included:

– Committee Chairman Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) use of self-aggrandizing posters of Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, and Mahatma Gandhi.

– The committee’s failure to include even one woman as a witness in their first panel.

– The ominous insistence that an honest disagreement over a health policy that’s already followed without complaint in multiple states and enjoys wide-spread support is a threat to fundamental American principles and liberties.

– A long and rambling speech comparing a fictional “national pork mandate” to important women’s health drugs.

ThinkProgress has the video round-up:

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Issa Defends Denying Female Witness At Contraception Hearing: She ‘Wasn’t In Any Way Related’

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) defended his decision to not allow a women to testify at his hearing on the Obama administration’s new birth control rule yesterday, telling Fox News host Greta Van Susteren last night that the woman’s story wasn’t at all relevant to the hearing.

Democrats had originally planned to have Rev. Barry Lynn, a prominent supporter of the separation of Church and State, testify, but decided that a woman’s voice was needed, as every single other witness was a man. They tried bring in someone who has been personally affected by the issue — Sandra Fluke, a law student at Georgetown, which is affiliated with the Catholic Church and does not insure birth control for students — but Issa refused.

Appearing on Fox News with host Greta Van Susteren last night, Issa defended the decision, saying Fluke was unqualified to speak and that her first hand experience “wasn’t in any way related” to the issue at hand:

ISSA: They then wanted a different witness, a college student, whoreally didn’t belong on that panel for obvious reasons. […]

She had a compelling story, a very sad story of a classmate who developed an ovarian cyst that might have been prevented by using contraception in another way, one that by the way, the Catholic bishop and everyone else there said is fully allowed, under their faith. But it was one of those things where her story was compelling, but it wasn’t in any way related to the point of the stated reason for hearing.

Watch it:

Of course, while Issa and other conservatives has tried to claim that the birth control issue is exclusively about religious liberty, it unquestionably about women’s health as well. To silence a women with firsthand experience by claiming her voice is irrelevant is ludicrous and suggests Issa afraid to let the other side tell its story, as most Americans disagree with his position.

Catholic colleges may be okay with using contraception to treat health conditions on paper, but as Fluke’s story suggests, in reality, such a policy can still limit access and endanger women’s health.

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The Woman Prevented From Testifying In Favor Of Birth Control Says She’s ‘Stunned’ By GOP’s Rebuke

Sandra Fluke, the woman Republicans prevented from testifying at yesterday’s House Oversight Committee hearing, says she was “stunned” at Chairman Darrel Issa’s (R-CA) decision to keep her from discussing the consequences of limiting women’s access to affordable contraception at a hearing focused on Preside Obama’s birth control requirement. “I was so stunned when Chairman Issa made the decision to not allow me to speak…and to say that I was not an appropriate witness and that those women’s stories were not appropriate for this committee,” Fluke said last night onMSNBC’s The Ed Show. “I cannot think of who would be more appropriate for the committee to hear from than the women who are affected by this policy, whose lives were affected.”

The third-year Georgetown Law student went on to tell the story of her friend who couldn’t afford her birth control — at $100 per month — and was refused insurance coverage for the medication, despite its medical necessity. Shortly thereafter, she developed a massive cyst on her ovary and underwent a surgery that may have jeopardized her abilities to conceive a child:

FLUKE: What ultimately happen is she that had to have that ovary surgically removed. As a result of that, of course she would have problems conceiving a child, but even more, it just hasn’t stopped for her. She since the surgery has experienced symptoms of early menopause and her doctors are very concerned that at the age of 32 she is entering early menopause, which means that there will be nothing any doctor can do to help her to conceive a child and it will also put her at increased risk for cancer, heart disease, and osteoporosis. And that’s where she was this morning when I was attempting to tell her story to the public and to members of Congress, she was at the doctor’s office trying to cope with the symptoms she’s experiencing.

Watch it: [I couldn’t embed the video, but it can be viewed on ThinkProgress at the hyperlinked title of this story.]

As the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein pointed out last week, Fluke’s friend isn’t the only woman relying on contraception to treat health ailments. “The Guttmacher Institute estimates that roughly 14 percent of birth control prescriptions are written for non-contraceptive purposes, helping some 1.5 million women with issues like ovarian cancer, ovarian cysts, endometriosis, and endometrial cancer.” Many women currently “do not have access to health insurance coverage to pay for this medication simply because they work at places owned or run by the Catholic Church” and lower-income women too often can’t afford to pay for the medication out of pocket.

A recent study found that insured women paid about 50 percent of the total costs for oral contraceptives, even though the typical out-of-pocket cost of non-contraceptive drugs is only 33 percent. Oral contraceptives can cost $600 dollars a year for women without insurance. As a result, nearly one in four women with household incomes of less than $75,000 have put off a doctor’s visit for birth control to save money in the past year. Half of young adult women report using their method inconsistently because of high costs.

Under the administration’s new rule, all women will have access to a wide range of women’s health services — including contraception — as part of their health insurance plans, at no additional cost sharing. Houses of worship and institutions that primarily serve people of the same faith are exempt from the providing birth control, while nonprofit religiously affiliated colleges, hospitals, and universities can also opt out of offering the benefit. Their employees will receive the medication directly from the insurance company.

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The Testimony About Birth Control Republicans Did Not Want You To Hear

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) held a hearing today about the Obama administration’s new regulation requiring employers and insurers to provide contraception coverage to their employees, but they prevented women from testifying on the issue.

Democrats had invited Sandra Fluke, a third year law student at Georgetown University, a Jesuit school, but Issa prevented her from testifying. Issa said that he had not found Fluke “appropriate and qualified” to testify before his committee. Fluke later posted her testimony on YouTube.

In her testimony, Fluke describes the financial barriers for female law students at Georgetown who need contraception because the school does not offer birth control coverage in its student health insurance plans. Contraception can cost women up to $3,000 over the course of law school without the coverage, she said, which adds up to an entire summer’s salary for students on public interest scholarships. And 40 percent of women at Georgetown Law say they struggle financially because of the policy. “Just on Tuesday, a married female student told me she had to stop using contraception because she couldn’t afford it any longer,” Fluke wrote.

For some women, the consequences of forgoing birth control can be severe:

A friend of mine, for example, has polycystic ovarian syndrom and has to take prescription birth control to stop cysts from growing on her ovaries. […] After months of paying over $100 out of pocket, she just couldn’t afford her medication anymore and had to stop taking it. […] Without taking the birth control, a massive cyst had grown on her ovary. She had to have surgery to remove her entire ovary. […]

Since last year’s surgery, she’s been experiencing night sweats, weight gain, and other symptoms of early menopause as a result of the removal of her ovary. She’s 32 years old. As she put it: “If my body is indeed in early menopause, no fertility specialist in the world will be able to help me have my own children.”

Watch Fluke offer her testimony here:

Fluke’s testimony and the experiences of her fellow law students could have been important stories for members of Congress to hear about the real impact that having or not having insurance coverage for contraception can have on women.

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Darrell Issa Compares His All-Male Anti-Contraception Panel To Martin Luther King

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) has been catching flack for holding a panel today relating to women’s access to birth control that featured zero women, but Issa won’t let the fact that few Americans agree with his position deter him. Taking to Twitter this evening, he fired back with a always-appropriate Martin Luther King Jr. comparison:

Indeed, as King knew, the “arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice” and depriving women who work for Catholic hospitals of affordable birth control. Issa’s hearing also featured giant posters of King and other historical greats whose footsteps the panel was apparently following in, like President Kennedy, and Mohandas Gandhi.

But as Adam Serwer points out, King actually wrote that he hoped state and federal governments would appropriate “large sums of money” to educate people about birth control.

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Republicans Who Oppose Obama’s Contraception Regulation Have No Problem With Romney’s

On Wednesday over two dozen Republican House and Senate members held a press conference in support of the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, which would allow any and all insurers and employers to deny their employees health benefits and services required by federal law based on their personal religious or moral objections.

The lawmakers each condemned President Obama’s contraception rule as an infringement of religious liberty, before TPM’s Sahil Kapur asked, “Would any of you refuse to support a presidential candidate who enacted a similar mandate,” referring to Mitt Romney’s rather complicated past with birth control requirements. The former Massachusetts governor remained mum as the legislature implemented a law requiring insurers to provide contraception in 2003 and his health department issued regulations requiring all hospitals — including Catholic institutions — to offer emergency birth control to rape victims in 2005. The Republicans seemed unsure of how to respond:

There were uncomfortable smiles across the stage. “Somebody else want to do that?” asked Fortenberry, stepping aside from the podium and looking around at his colleagues as they let out a mixture of laughs and groans. A few seconds went by and none volunteered.

“Would anybody be willing to rule that out?” I pressed.

“We’re focused on this,” said Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH).

“The bill before us…” one of her colleagues began and was cut off. “Don’t try to distract!”

“That’s not the issue!” declared Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) in an indignant tone.

Fortenberry then took the mic and addressed the question… sort of.

“This is a legislative initiative that we’re trying to undertake,” he said. “Of course, we’d like our eventual nominee — but this is a bipartisan bill. I mean, I would hope that people who are cosponsors of this bill would urge President Obama to sign this because he has stated that he supports the principles of religious liberty. And so I think he should be comfortable with this measure.”

At least five of the lawmakers who attended Thursday’s press conference in support of the Fortenberry bill — Reps. Sandy Adams (R-FL), Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Diane Black (R-TN), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), and Jeff Miller (R-FL) — have also publicly endorsedRomney’s bid for the GOP presidential nomination. Yet, House GOP remain evermore reluctant to address such an egregious case of cognitive dissonance.

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Santorum Sugar Daddy Foster Friess Gives ‘Gals’ Contraception Advice: Put An Aspirin Between Your Knees

Appearing of MSNBC with Andrea Mitchell today, Foster Friess, the main donor to the Super PAC backing Rick Santorum’s presidential bid, dismissed the controversy surrounding President Obama’s new birth control rule by suggesting that women should just keep their legs shut. Asked if he worried that Santorum’s Puritanical views on sex and social issues could hurt the candidate in the general election, Friess offered a more home-spun family planning scheme:

FRIESS: On this contraceptive thing, my gosh, it’s so inexpensive. You know, back in my days, they used Bayer Aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their knees and it wasn’t that costly.

Watch it:

Given that Aspirin is not a contraceptive, Friess seems to be suggesting that women keep the pill between their knees in order to ensure they legs stay closed to prevent having sex. Conspicuously, Friess doesn’t put the same burden on men.

Friess’ general attitude seems consistent with the candidate he supports. Santorum personally opposes contraception, has pledged to lecture women on the dangers of birth control if elected president, and thinks states have the right to outlaw it.

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Democratic Women Slam GOP’s Radical Contraception Amendment, Claim It ‘Opens Door To Discrimination’

High-profile Democratic women are hitting back against the GOP’s opposition to the Obama administration’s new rule requiring insurers and employers to offer contraception in their health care benefit plans. Obama exempts houses of worship and nonprofits that primarily employ people of the same faith from covering birth control, while religiously affiliated hospitals and colleges can also eschew the benefit. Their employees would obtain the coverage — at no additional cost sharing — directly from the insurer.

Today, the Senate will hold a vote on a Republican substitute introduced by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), which would allow any and all insurers and employers to deny their employees health benefits and services required by federal law based on their personal religious or moral objections. The measure has 37 co-sponsors — including the GOP leadership, women Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski (AK), Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX), Kelly Ayotte (NH), Democrat Ben Nelson (NE), and Republican Scott Brown (MA). Brown has supported expansive conscience protections for religious organizations throughout his legislative career, but voted for a tougher contraception mandate as a Massachusetts state representative in 2002 and approved of a law requiring all hospitals — including Catholic institutions — to provide emergency contraception to rape victims in 2005.

After defending Obama’s rule last year, Democrats are now on the offensive. Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Patty Murray (D-WA) have derided Blunt’s measure as “extreme” and “dangerous,” claiming that “It puts politics between women and their healthcare.” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) warned, “This would gut the protections that were established in the Affordable Care Act and open a Pandora’s box that allows employers to deny coverage for virtually anything they might object to” and yesterday, Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren told the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent that amendment would permit insurers or employers to discriminate against women:

“I am shocked that Senator Brown jumped in to support such an extreme measure,” Warren told me by phone just now. “This is an all new attack on health care. Any insurance company could leave anyone without health care, just when they need it most.” […]

“This is an extreme attack on every one of us,” Warren said. “It opens the door to outright discrimination. It would let insurance companies and corporations cut off pregnant women, overweight guys, older Americans, or anyone — because some executive claims it’s part of his moral code. Maybe that wouldn’t happen, but I don’t want to take the chance.”

Indeed, under the measure, an insurer or an employer would be able to claim a moral or religious objection to covering HIV/AIDS screenings, Type 2 Diabetes treatments, cancer tests or anything else they deem inappropriate or the result of an “unhealthy” or “immoral” lifestyle. Similarly, a health plan could refuse to cover mental health care on the grounds that the plan believes that psychiatric problems should be treated with prayer.

Individuals too can opt out of coverage if it is contrary to their religious or moral beliefs, radically undermining “the basic principle of insurance, which involves pooling the risks for all possible medical needs of all enrollees.” As the National Women’s Law Center explains, Blunt’s language is vague enough that “insurers may be able to sell plans that do not cover services required by the new health care law to an entire market because one individual objects, so all consumers in a market lose their right to coverage of the full range of critical health services.” As a result, a man “purchasing an insurance plan offered to women and men could object to maternity coverage, so the plan would not have to cover it, even though such coverage is required as part of the essential health benefits.”

Significantly, two Republican women senators — Olympia Snowe (ME) and Susan Collins (ME) — have come out in support of Obama’s modified contraception rule and may oppose Blunt’s measure.

Read the full amendment here.

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Sioux City Bishop Calls For Christians To ‘Violently Oppose’ ‘Evil’ Birth Control Rule

Appearing on a webcast hosted by the conservative Family Research Council, Walker Nickless, the Bishop of Diocese of Sioux City, Iowa, warned the Obama administration’s new contraception policy is the work of “the devil,” who “wants to silence the [Catholic] Church’s voice.” During the interview, first flagged by Right Wing Watch, Nickless said, “The power of evil, the devil, is certainly looking everywhere where the power of evil can make a difference.” “And that’s why we’ve got to stand up and violently oppose this,” he added, “we cannot let darkness overshadow us.” Watch it:

While it’s unclear if Nickless is calling for literal violence in opposition to the mandate — something that’s difficult to square with Jesus Christ’s teaching that “if someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other” — or merely calling for strong resistance, his comment underscores the extreme rhetoric with which some religious conservatives have responded to the Obama Administration’s effort to ensure that all women have access to contraception. Some recently told Sean Hannity they’d bewilling to die before complying with the law.

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Hannity’s Conservative Faith Leaders Ready To Go To Jail, Die Before Providing Birth Control

A panel of conservative religious leaders assembled by Fox News host Sean Hannity Friday night had increasingly apocalyptic responses to President Obama’s new contraception policy, saying they were eager to go to jail or even die before violating their conscious by providing birth control to women.

Rich Land of the Southern Baptist Convention hit the two poles of overly emphatic rhetoric in one breath, first invoking the Holocaust by reciting Martin Niemöller famous poem “First they came…,” before comparing himself to Martin Luther King Jr. by saying he was ready to “follow in the footsteps” of the civil rights giant by dispatching letters from jail, if need be.

Hannity responded by asking the baker’s dozen religious leader, “how many of you would be willing to go to jail over this?” — all but three or four raised their hands.

But Father Jonathan Morris, a Fox News contributor and Catholic priest in New York City, one upped Land, saying he was ready to put his life on the line. “It’s very clear, people have died for those things that are absolutely essential for their faith. It’s not a question of are you willing to go to jail, it’s if I’m asked to do something that goes against my conscious, I’d better be willing to die for that.” He continued, “If I’m not willing to die for that, what am I standing up for?” Watch it:

Conservative commentator Michele Malkin also reached for the Holocaust invocation on this issue, and pastor Rick Warren, who spoke at Obama’s inauguration said he would be willing to go to jail.

But this is a silly offer of self-sacrifice, as there is no actual threat of jail time. While the final regulations have yet to be written, the penalty will be financial — not criminal — and regulated by the IRS, likely about $1,000 per violation, according to an expect contacted by ThinkProgress. As Andrew Sullivan notes, by their, Rick Warrenshould already be in jail, as he’s a resident of California, which has a stricter contraception mandate than the new federal one.

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Republican Women Senators Breaking Ranks With Party, Come Out In Favor Of Obama Contraception Rule

While GOP senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has pledged to fight the Obama’s administration’s modified regulation requiring health insurers and busnisses to offer contraception coverage without additional cost sharing, the revised rule “appears to have won over” two of the five Republican women senators.

Sens. Olympia Snowe (ME) and Susan Collins (ME) — both of whom have sponsored legislation requiring insurers to offer contraception benefits in all health plans — are in favor of the new compromise, which would allow religiously affiliated colleges, universities, and hospitals to avoid providing birth control. Their employees will still receive contraception coverage at no additional cost sharing directly from the insurer:

“It appears that changes have been made that provide women’s health services without compelling Catholic organizations in particular to violate the beliefs and tenets of their faith,” Snowe said in a statement. “According to the Catholic Health Association, the administration ‘responded to the issues [they] identified that needed to be fixed,’ which is what I urged the president to do in addressing this situation.

“While I will carefully review the details of the president’s revised proposal, it appears to be a step in the right direction,” Collins said in a statement. “The administration’s original plan was deeply flawed and clearly would have posed a threat to religious freedom. It presented the Catholic Church with its wide-ranging social, educational, and health care services, and many other faith-based organizations, with an impossible choice between violating their religious beliefs or violating federal regulations. The administration has finally listened to the concerns raised by many and appears to be seeking to avoid the threat to religious liberties posed by its original plan.”

Republicans in the senate seem determined to oppose the compromise and have introduced legislation that would allow employers or individuals to opt out of any benefit that undermines their moral beliefs. “They don’t have the authority under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution to tell someone in this country or some organization in this country what their religious beliefs are,” McConnell told “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “This issue will not go away until the administration simply backs down,” he said.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), who led the GOP’s opposition to the original rule, has yet to issue a statement on the measure and did not respond to ThinkProgress’ query about her position. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) also did not respond. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) co-sponsored a 1999 bill requiring contraception equity in insurance coverage and has not yet to weigh in on the current debate.

UPDATE: Ayotte tells the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent that she still opposes Obama’s proposal: “The president’s proposal leaves religious institutions vulnerable to federal coercion. This debate has always been about religious freedom. As I fight for a full repeal of Obamacare, I will continue to push for a legislative solution that protects conscience rights.”

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Romney Shows He Hasn’t Read Obama’s Modified Birth Control Reg During Rowdy Maine Town Hall

Mitt Romney doubled down on his new-found objection to contraception coverage during a town hall in Maine on Friday. Romney — who remained mum as Massachusetts implemented a measure requiring insurance companies to cover contraception in 2003, signed into law a health care reform bill that has greatly expanded access to state-funded birth control, and required Catholic hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims — told a rowdy crown in Portland, Maine that President Obama’s modified contraception rule does not go far enough:

At the event, Romney also waded into the political fray over the decision by the Obama administration today to require insurers, rather than private employers, to pay for coverage of contraception. The move reversed an earlier decision that would have required religious-affiliated organizations, such as Catholic hospitals, to provide the coverage, prompting an outcry from across the political spectrum.

“Today he did the classic Obama retreat all right, and what I mean by that is, it wasn’t a retreat at all. It’s another deception,” Romney said, arguing that that religious organizations still will have to pay for contraception after insurance companies pass the costs along to employers.

“Companies consist of people, and someone has to pay — the owners, the employees or the customers, and they pass those costs on to the customers,” he said.

But it’s Romney who is being devious here. Actuaries and real world experiences in covering contraception in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan (FEHBP) have found that contraception coverage is at the very least cost neutral within the context of the benefits of the health care plan. And in announcing its compromise on Friday, the administration pledged to work with insurers to issue future regulations that would specifically stipulate that if a religiously affiliated nonprofit chooses to avoid offering contraception in its health care plan, “there be no charge for the contraceptive coverage” for the employer or the employee.

As a senior administration official explained to the Washington Post’s Sarah Kliff, “Our policy is saying that the Catholic hospital doesn’t want to cover contraceptives, and they don’t include that in their policy. It also says that Aetna needs to provide contraceptive services for free to workers in the plan. Aetna sets the premium, but it cannot be higher than it would have been without birth control. The premium does not include contraception.” “There is a sort of bank account,” says the official. So, in this particular hypothetical, “Aetna is sucking it up.”

In other words, providing contraception without additional cost sharing will become “a legitimate cost of doing business” for health insurers who work with religious nonprofits, and while they may not be all too thrilled at the prospect, administration officials expect them to agree “that this is going to be a cost-neutral benefit.”