As Congress prepares for a debate over the Obama administration’s contraception rule, Senate Republican Conference Vice Chair Roy Blunt (MO) took to the op-ed pages of his homestate newspaper to frame the issue on favorable terms.
“This is not about one group, one health care requirement, or one set of beliefs. It’s about protecting Americans’ fundamental religious freedom,” Blunt wrote in a St. Louis Today guest commentary. “What President Obama doesn’t seem to understand is that this debate is not about cost. It’s not about contraception. It’s about the Constitution. It’s about faith and who controls the religious views of faith-based institutions.”
Blunt is the author of the GOP measure that would roll back the mandate and permit any employer to deny contraception — or any other service — in their health care plans. His op-ed is the latest reminder that the GOP strategy is predicated on turning the debate away from contraception itself, given that Americans are widely supportive of using birth control.
