President Barack Obama touted a federal mandate that insurance companies cover contraceptives as an anti-discrimination measure at a recent fundraiser, but Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, calls the new contraceptive regulations a “payback” for special interest supporters of Obamacare.
Speaking at a St. Louis fundraiser, Obama declared, “No longer can insurance companies discriminate against women just because you guys are the ones who have to give birth.” Obama added moments later that insurance companies must “cover things like mammograms and contraception as preventive care, no more out-of-pocket costs.”
But Paul, a presidential candidate and former OB/GYN doctor, says in a statement that the Health and Human Services regulations that require insurance companies to pay for the contraceptives amounts to “a payback to Planned Parenthood and big pharmaceutical companies for their support of Obamacare.”
Paul criticized “the flippancy” of Obama’s discussion of the regulation – “Darn tooting!” the president said to underscore his approval of the HHS rule – and Paul also noted that the rule permits “inadequate opportunity to self-exempt” for conscience issues.
Pro-life critics say the conscience exemption is written so narrowly that even most Roman Catholic hospitals would not qualify for the exemption from the rule, which treats pregnancy almost as a disease that requires the same kind of “preventive care” as sexually transmitted diseases or, as Obama noted, breast cancer.
