Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I am pleased to join Senator Merkley, the Presiding Officer, and the others of my colleagues who will come to the floor this afternoon to speak out against the Blunt amendment.

Over the past year, we have come to the floor many times to speak out against the attacks on women's health. Since this Congress began, we have seen assaults on Planned Parenthood, on Federal funding for family planning and on contraception. But now we are facing the Blunt amendment which is even more extreme and far reaching than we have seen in all those other attempts to politicize women's health.

This proposal would affect health care not just for women but for all Americans. It will affect the care of our children, of our husbands, and our wives. In short, the Blunt amendment would let your boss make your health care decisions instead of you and your doctor. The amendment would empower corporations or any other employer to deny virtually any preventive or essential health service to any American based on any religious or moral objection. I would point out that in the bill, religious and moral objections are not defined. So it can be whatever anybody interprets it to mean.

Under the amendment, an employer could claim a moral or religious basis in order to deny things such as coverage for HIV/AIDS screenings or counseling, prenatal care for single mothers, mammograms, vaccinations for children, or even screenings for diabetes if the employer claims a moral objection to a perceived unhealthy lifestyle.

While this amendment could affect men, women, and children, make no mistake; at the most fundamental level, this debate is about a woman's access to contraception. Supporters of the amendment want to turn back the clock on women's health. They want to deny women access to preventive health services.

Birth control is something most women use sometime in their lifetime, and it is something that the medical community believes is essential to the health of a woman and her family. I would point out the decision that the Blunt amendment claims to be addressing is one that was made not for political reasons but for medical reasons by the Institute of Medicine, and it was made because contraception is important to women's health. It prevents unintended pregnancies. The United States has the highest rate of unintended pregnancy in the developed world. Approximately one-half of all pregnancies here in America are unintended. Contraception can help women and families address this.

Access to birth control is directly linked to declines in maternal and infant mortality. In fact, the National Commission to Prevent Infant Mortality has estimated that 10 percent of infant deaths could be prevented if all pregnancies were planned.

For some 1.5 million women, birth control pills are not used for contraception but for medical reasons. As the Presiding Officer pointed out in that poignant letter from your constituents who pointed out all of the reasons that women could take contraceptives, it could reduce the risk of some cancers, and it is linked to overall good health outcomes.

As Governor of New Hampshire, I was proud to sign a law back in 1999 that requires health care plans to cover contraception. At that time, we heard little controversy, little uproar, virtually no concerns about religious exemptions to the law. The bill in New Hampshire back in 1999 passed the Republican-led State legislature with overwhelming bipartisan support. In fact, in the House, almost as many Republicans voted for the bill as Democrats. I think that was because it was understood by people on both sides of the aisle of all religious faiths that requiring contraceptive coverage was about women's health and it was about basic health care coverage.

For 12 years, that law in New Hampshire has been in place with little opposition because it has worked. And it is particularly unfortunate, as we are having this debate about women's health, thinking about what happened back in New Hampshire, to see this debate become so politicized. It is not right. It is not what is the best interest of women's health, and I urge my colleagues to oppose the Blunt amendment.

The decision about a woman's health care should be between her, her doctor, her family, and her faith. Let's not turn back the clock on women's access to health care.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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