McConnell Enlists Kelly Ayotte To Help Defend Hobby Lobby Ruling

Senate Armed Services Committee member Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., gestures while speaking during a news conference on unemployment and military pension cuts, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (A... Senate Armed Services Committee member Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., gestures while speaking during a news conference on unemployment and military pension cuts, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais MORE LESS
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Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) stopped by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) weekly press conference on Tuesday to make the GOP’s case against overturning the Hobby Lobby decision, as Democrats are pushing to do.

“I’ve been deeply disturbed by the misrepresentations that are being made about what the Hobby Lobby decision means,” she said. “There is nothing in the Hobby Lobby ruling that allows a company to stop a woman from getting or filling a prescription for contraception.”

The Senate is poised to hold a procedural vote Wednesday on Democrats’ legislation to reverse the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling. The bill says employers may not opt out of providing health services in their insurance plans which are required under Obamacare. Republicans are expected to filibuster and prevent it from reaching an up-or-down vote.

Ayotte said Republicans will offer legislation “that will make very clear that women have the same rights today to access contraception as they did before Obamacare was passed, and before the Hobby Lobby decision.” She said the bill will “reaffirm” that employers may not prevent an employee from buying FDA-approved drugs, including contraception (which some women will have to do out of pocket because of the Supreme Court ruling).

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