Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Missouri, and I appreciate his hard work and his leadership in bringing this amendment forward.

President Obama's accommodation of religious liberty in his revised health care mandate covering contraceptives, sterilizations, and medicines causing abortion raises more questions than it answers. Perhaps the most troublesome part is that even with this revision, the President's mandate refuses to acknowledge that the Constitution guarantees conscience protections. He instead tries to run around them. You don't ``accommodate'' religious liberties, you respect them. That is why they are enshrined in the Constitution.

Those constitutional protections should prevent the President from trampling the conscience rights of Americans and religious institutions that hold a strong belief that contraceptives, sterilizations, and drugs causing abortion are wrong. Clearly, however, these constitutional protections are not enough. President Obama's ``accommodation'' shows that he considers conscience rights to be an inconvenience in his effort to remake America in his vision. That is why we need the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act. The Respect for Rights of Conscience Act--introduced by my colleague from Missouri, Senator Roy Blunt--seeks to restore conscience protections that existed before President Obama's health care law. These are the same protections--and I think this is important--that have existed for more than 220 years, since the first amendment was ratified.

The amendment of the Senator from Missouri has been offered to the surface transportation act, and we expect to vote on it as early as tomorrow. The amendment's goal is commendable, and I look forward to supporting it. It is simply asking the President to respect the religious liberties of Americans.

Many longstanding Federal health care conscience laws protect conscientious objections to certain types of medical services. The President could have just as easily followed that course when he issued a mandate requiring almost all private health insurance policies--including those issued by religious institutions, such as hospitals, schools, and nonprofits--to cover sterilizations and contraceptives, including emergency contraceptives at no cost to policyholders, but he did not.

Now Congress must step up and protect the religious liberties of all Americans. We can do this by passing Senator Blunt's amendment. I certainly encourage all of my colleagues to take a close look at this--this is so important--and restore the conscience protections we have always stood for as a nation. I commend the Senator from Missouri and look forward to supporting his amendment.

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