Advocacy in Action: Senate Defeats Blunt Amendment

Moments ago, the U.S. Senate voted 51 to 48 to block the Blunt amendment—an extreme legislative effort to allow any employer to refuse coverage of any service required under the new U.S. health care law based on religious or moral objections.

Thanks to the unrelenting advocacy of supporters like you, we sent thousands of letters to our senators insisting they reject the Blunt amendment and call it out for what it is: a blatant attack on our fundamental rights.

Regardless of what anti-choice ideologues have been saying, the real threat to liberty has come from those who have sought to deny the benefits of progress to the majority of Americans based on the “moral objections” of an extremist few.

Today the Senate rejected one such threat—but it must stand strong against the others sure to follow.

It’s crystal clear that women’s fundamental reproductive rights are being used as a wedge in a cynical attempt to divide the American public and advance a radical agenda that threatens the bedrock rights of all Americans.

But there is no divide. The vast majority of Americans agree that everyone deserves equal access to affordable preventive health care—including contraception—no matter where they work.

In a country where half of all pregnancies are unintended, what’s truly morally objectionable are these extremist attempts to deny copay-free access to the one thing that’s guaranteed to prevent millions of unintended pregnancies every year.

For today, the battle is done and we should celebrate this victory and the hard work invested to make sure our rights remain protected. Working together, we beat back this amendment and showed our opponents that we won’t take these attacks lying down. 

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The Center for Reproductive Rights recently posted a comprehensive reply to the recent contraception controversy, which takes a closer look at the arguments by opponents of the contraception requirement, unpacks the legal issues and public health debate, and responds to many erroneous assertions.