Senate Stands Up for Women Defeating Blunt Amendment

The U.S. Senate defeated the Blunt amendment by a vote of 51-48.

"Baby Grace" Life is precious, and children deserve to be cherished. Planning to be a parent is the best gift you can give your child. Photo: Amy Johns

(SALEM, Ore.) - Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, made this statement on the defeat in the Senate of Sen. Roy Blunt’s proposal to undermine health insurance and deny women birth control coverage:

“This is an important victory. Today’s vote says that your boss won’t be able to decide which prescriptions you can get filled and which medical procedures you can have.

“For women, this vote is an important victory for covering contraception just like other preventive health care. The birth control benefit is critically important for millions of women, who have watched the debate over this benefit with disappointment and bewilderment.

“Today the U.S. Senate stood up for women’s health and basic health care, and defeated this extreme proposal that would have allowed any corporation or health plan to refuse to cover any health care service they object to, such as cancer screenings, maternity care, HIV/AIDS treatments, and others.

“A wide range of health care groups, including the American Cancer Society, the March of Dimes, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Spina Bifida Association joined Planned Parenthood in opposing this dangerous proposal.

“As a trusted health care provider to one in five women in America, Planned Parenthood believes that women, regardless of where they work, should have access to health insurance that covers preventive health care, including birth control, with no co-pays.

“The Blunt amendment would have rolled back an enormously popular benefit and undermined a fundamental principle of the health care law — that everyone in this country deserves a basic standard of health insurance coverage.”

Planned Parenthood is the nation’s leading sexual and reproductive health care provider and advocate. The group's mission is to achieve personal autonomy for all individuals; that everyone has the right to choose when or whether to have a child, and that every child should be wanted and loved.

Planned Parenthood affiliates operate nearly 800 health centers nationwide, providing medical services and sexuality education for millions of women, men, and teenagers each year.

They also work with allies worldwide to ensure that all women and men have the right and the means to meet their sexual and reproductive health care needs, wherever they may be.

Source: Planned Parenthood