BY JIM HADDADIN
[email protected] Thursday, March 15, 2012 DOVER — Calling access to contraception a “settled issue,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley said a bill that would allow New Hampshire employers to stop providing health care coverage for birth control on religious grounds is unlikely to pass the Senate in its current form. The bill would amend a 12-year-old state law that requires insurance companies to pay for contraceptives such as birth control pills, as well as doctor consultations for contraception, if their insurance plans include other drug coverage. The bill was approved by the Republican-controlled House last week, championed by Speaker William O’Brien, who has said an existing state law that mandates contraception coverage limits religious freedom. “I’m not in the business of prediction at this point, but I think it’s going to be pretty hard to pass the contraception bill the way it was sent over,” Bradley said on Tuesday during a meeting with the Editorial Board of Foster’s Daily Democrat.
“There are some problems in it.” Bradley declined to discuss his specific concerns about the bill, citing the fact that the bill has yet to be assigned to a Senate committee for review. Dozens of women opposed to the bill attended a House floor debate on Wednesday, March 7. It passed on a 196-150 vote, but received support from fewer than two-thirds of House legislators, the number required to overcome a potential veto from Gov. John Lynch. Currently, there is no religious exemption under the contraception coverage mandate, though employers such as the Catholic Diocese that self-insure are not obligated to pay for contraception coverage. The debate in New Hampshire mirrors a nationwide conversation over access to contraception coverage, prompted by a new federal directive requiring employers to pay the full cost of contraception coverage for their employees. The directive provides exemptions for some religious employers, such as churches, but has been criticized by a number of Catholic organizations, as well as Republican legislators, who say the directive violates the constitutional rights of employers. Earlier this month, the U.S. Senate narrowly defeated a Republican attempt to roll back the federal contraception mandate, which was executed as part of the Affordable Care Act, the health-care legislation spearheaded by the president two years ago. In New Hampshire, and nationwide, Democrats have seized on the contraception argument as an opportunity to rally supporters, framing the conversation as a Republican attack on women’s rights and access to health care. Obama for America, the president’s campaign organization, announced plans this week to hold 40 grassroots events around the state and mobilize supporters around the issue of women’s health-care coverage.
