Supreme Court Birth Control
Demonstrators react to hearing the Supreme Court's decision on the Hobby Lobby case outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Monday, June 30, 2014. U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei is sponsoring new legislation that responds to the court decision.
(Pablo Martinez Monsivais | The Associated Press)
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Only 10 days after the U.S. Supreme Court gave some corporations the right to exclude certain forms of birth control from employee health insurance plans, U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei and members of the House Pro-Choice Caucus have come up with a legislative response.
Maffei signed on as an original co-sponsor of the Protect Women's Health from Corporate Interference Act of 2014, a bill responding to the Supreme Court's Burwell v. Hobby Lobby decision.
The House bill would prohibit for-profit employers who offer group health plans from using religious beliefs to deny employees coverage for contraceptives or vital health services. The Supreme Court decision allowed those employers to opt out of covering four specific forms of birth control -- the emergency contraceptives Plan B and ella, and two IUDs.
"It is deeply disturbing that the Supreme Court has given some for-profit corporations the right to deny their employees birth control coverage," Maffei said today. "It's simple: A woman's boss should not have jurisdiction over her private health care decisions."
Maffei has been outspoken about the Supreme Court's decision. He was among more than 90 members of Congress who filed a court brief in the Hobby Lobby case. The brief supported the federal rule that expanded access to contraceptives under the Affordable Care Act
The House bill has the support of Planned Parenthood of Central and Western New York, which calls the Hobby Lobby decision "a dangerous precedent that could open the doors to widespread discrimination against female employees."
Maffei said the House bill keeps in place exemptions for religious employers such as the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse and Catholic Charities. The bill's authors are Reps. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, and Diana DeGette, D-Colo., co-Chairs of the House Pro-Choice Caucus, and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.
U.S. Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash. and Mark Udall, D-Colo., have introduced a companion bill in the Senate that is sponsored by U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.
Contact Washington Correspondent Mark Weiner at mweiner@syracuse.com or 571-970-3751. Follow him on Twitter @MarkWeinerDC