A Day of Action to Protect Women’s Health

Reactions to passage of House Bill 1546, which would grant employers with a “religious objection” the right to exclude birth control and contraceptive services from employee medical insurance coverage. The vote was 196-150, more than enough opposition votes to sustain a gubernatorial veto should the Senate concur.

I never thought that in 2012 the New Hampshire Legislature would be debating the use of contraceptives. This issue is settled for Granite Staters.
— House Democratic Leader Terie Norelli

Allowing employers to decide what’s best for women’s reproductive health is outrageous. Who can imagine going to a job interview and having to ask a prospective employer whether or not they allow female employees access to contraception? 
— Laura Thibault, NARAL Pro-Choice NH

My Republicans colleagues are using the banner of religious freedom as a way to mask their blatant attacks on women’s health rights. 
— Rep. Chris Serlin, Constitutional Review Committee

This is more extreme than any similar proposal anywhere in the country. It turns back the clock on a dozen years of bipartisan support for a law that guarantees women have access to contraception, and all at the taxpayers’ expense. 
— Jackie Cilley, Democratic gubernatorial candidate

Speaker O’Brien’s Tea Party legislature has ignored the needs of New Hampshire women who simply ask for access to basic health care. This unbelievable assault on women has to stop.
— Maggie Hassan, Democratic gubernatorial candidate

h/t: Granite State Progress

“This Is a Health Issue, a Secular Issue & a Privacy Issue”

In a powerful op-ed, Democratic state Rep. Cynthia Chase recalls “a truly awful time” before a woman had a right to control her sexuality and her reproductive life.

I am old enough to remember what it was like for women when contraception was illegal….

I remember when back alley abortions were performed in secret on kitchen tables with no anesthetic….

I remember the Sophia Little Home … where “disgraced” young women were sent to await the birth of their babies….

I remember being about 9 or 10 years old and hearing of people being jailed for telling woman about contraception.

Allowing women to control their reproductive life, Chase reminds us, led to their “full participation in American society.” That equality is now threatened, she charges, by the Catholic Church and right wing ideologues who have declared war on contraception and on the women of New Hampshire.

The audacity of such a move is exceeded only by the silence of women whose lives will be significantly changed should legislation such as House Bill 1653 become law.

This is not a religious issue, no matter what the oracles in Concord may claim. This is a health issue, a secular issue and a privacy issue.

O’Brien Misstates Sen. Ted Kennedy on Contraception

In his extraordinary rant attacking Democrat gubernatorial candidate Jackie Cilley and defending the exclusion of birth control from prescription drug coverage, state House Speaker Bill O’Brien invoked the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.

New Hampshire has a long and proud history of support for religious tolerance and there was a time not too long ago when this principle was not a partisan issue. In fact, it was the late Sen. Ted Kennedy who wrote that he believed in and would continue to advocate for a conscience protection for Catholics in the health field.

Writing in the Boston Globe, Noah Bierman corrects the record.

The late Senator Edward M. Kennedy sponsored bills in the 1990s and 2000s that would have required all employers who offer prescription drug coverage to include contraception coverage, an action that seems to undercut Senator Scott Brown’s contention that Kennedy shared his views on allowing exemptions based on moral objections.

Kennedy appears to have supported the right of doctors and hospitals to refrain from performing abortions…. But his son, Patrick Kennedy, and three former aides … say he never supported allowing employers to exclude health coverage for contraception….

House Speaker O’Brien’s Over the Top Diatribe

When Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jackie Cilley blasted House Speaker Bill O’Brien over his attempts to allow the exclusion of birth control from prescription drug coverage, O’Brien responded with an extraordinary diatribe.

Cilley’s misguided, Ahab-like quest to implement ObamaCare in New Hampshire has reached an all-time, shocking low.

Commentators have described right-to-work as O’Brien’s white whale. In referring to Cilley having an “Ahab-like quest,” O’Brien is transferring his obsessiveness to her.

Asking Catholics to abandon their religion in favor of her leftist ideology is unnecessary, cynical, unconstitutional and completely contrary to the tenants [sic] this country was founded upon.

O’Brien makes a classic straw man argument in accusing Cilley of “asking Catholics to abandon their religion.” Including birth control with prescription drug coverage is “leftist ideology?” (He means “tenets”, of course.)

Cilley should apologize to Catholics and reconsider her race for Governor. Her Obama tactics of dividing the voters by using vitriol and hatred is not the New Hampshire way and not what our citizens need.

O’Brien patronizes Cilley by offering “advice” and the state’s “citizens” by telling us what we need.

New Hampshire has a long and proud history of support for religious tolerance and there was a time not too long ago when this principle was not a partisan issue.

This is true. The New Hampshire state law requiring insurance companies to include birth control in prescription drug coverage was passed by the legislature in 1999 with overwhelmingly bipartisan majorities in both chambers.

In fact, it was the late Sen. Ted Kennedy who wrote that he believed in and would continue to advocate for a conscience protection for Catholics in the health field.

New Hampshire’s law was passed in 1999 and implemented without objection from churches or religious organizations.

Cilley’s attacks on Rep. Lynne Blankenbeker, who is both a war veteran and a nurse, were uncalled for and inappropriate. Rep. Blankenbeker has been a tremendous role model for women across New Hampshire in serving her constituents and her country.

Cilley’s so-called “attack” was to simply quote Blankenbeker saying women could avoid an unwanted or untimely pregnancy “with simple over-the-counter remedies such as abstinence or condoms.”

We can have an honest and full debate without needing to resort to distortions such as any allegation that this is about denying women’s health or is an anti-contraception issue and without denying our citizens their constitutional First Amendment right of freedom of religion.

An “honest and full debate” demands we discuss with impact of denying women access to contraception.

Quote of the Day: Barefoot and Pregnant

I think they just want us barefoot and pregnant, and I’m disgusted. The atmosphere of the whole Republican Party has been going backwards, and the moderates are lost. The religious argument is bogus, because I think they’re just using that as a political tool.

— GOP state Rep. Priscilla Lockwood, on Republican efforts to allow employers and insurers to place limits on insurance coverage for birth control.