WASHINGTON — Sen. Amy Klobuchar joined her 11 fellow Senate Democratic women in asking House Republican leadership to not bring up for a vote controversial legislation allowing employers to opt out of extending health care coverage to contraception.
The senators wrote House Speaker John Boehner asking him to "abandon the promise you have made to bring legislation to the House floor similar to the Blunt amendment, which was defeated in the Senate last week, and which would turn the clock back on women’s access to health care."
The legislation in question would allow employers to deny certain kinds of health care coverage on religious grounds and it would overturn an Obama administration rule requiring employers cover contraception. The Senate voted down the measure last week, but Boehner said he would consider bringing a similar bill up for a vote in the House. No vote has been scheduled.
"For most American women, the battle over contraception was settled a half century ago," the letter said. "Yet, over the course of the past month alone, women have watched as panels on birth control have been convened without women, a young woman that dared to speak out in defense of birth control was subjected to vile name-calling, and extreme legislation, like the Blunt amendment, has been pushed to deny access."
All 12 Democratic women in the Senate, including Klobuchar, signed the letter, which they sent (not coincidentally) on International Women's Day.
Devin Henry can be reached at dhenry@minnpost.com.