NEW: Whitehouse, Cicilline Condemn Supreme Court Birth Control Decision
Monday, June 30, 2014
Rhode Island congressional leaders spoke out against a Supreme Court decision Monday that will change an Obamacare stipulation that would require insurance companies to offer free/low-cost contraception to women.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D) and Representative David Cicilline (D) released statements lamenting the ruling.
"I am deeply disappointed with the Supreme Court’s ruling and will continue working to stop attacks on women’s access to complete health care services and to advance women’s basic rights," said Cicilline. "This fight is not over.”
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Statement from Whitehouse
“This is just the latest example of the activist Roberts Court siding with the narrow interests of corporations over those of the American people. Ignoring the clear will of Congress, the Court’s five conservative justices today ruled that corporations have religious beliefs that they can put ahead of the medical well-being of the women who work for them. The decision sets a dangerous precedent by allowing for-profit corporations to meddle in decisions that should be left between a woman and her doctor, and I’m deeply disappointed in the Court’s ruling. It follows an increasingly predictable pattern of five activist, conservative Supreme Court justices deciding in 5-4 decisions that the Constitution and our laws mean whatever the Republican Party and big corporations want them to mean.”
Statement from Cicilline
“Women, not their bosses, should be in charge of their own personal health care choices. While much work remains, we have made tremendous progress in affording women full equality over many years and this decision rolls back that progress by limiting women's access to contraceptive health care services.
“The Affordable Care Act is designed to ensure women have access to quality, affordable health care, including contraception and family planning -- services that are critical to a woman's health care needs. In fact, an overwhelming majority of women use birth control or contraceptives at some point in their lives and the idea that they should be denied access to these basic health care services because their boss finds it religiously objectionable is ridiculous. While today's ruling will not undo all the benefits under the Affordable Care Act that allow millions of women to access birth control, it wrongly dictates that a CEO's religious beliefs outweigh a woman's right to access affordable contraception. This unfair discrimination contradicts the values of a majority of Americans and has no place in the 21st century. Importantly, today's decision also sets a bad precedent encouraging other for-profit corporations to deny health care coverage to their employees based on their owners' religious beliefs.
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