The Ohio House of Representatives responded to the Obama administration’s contraception mandate forcing religious employers to cover contraception, even if it goes against their religious beliefs.
Ohio House Concurrent Resolution 35 (HCR 35) was passed yesterday, urging President Obama and Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, to drop the contraception requirement, as “forcing Americans to choose between violating their consciences and forgoing their health care is an unconscionable attack on both access to health care and on religious freedom.”
The 56-38 vote was heavily split among party line, the Republicans voting overwhelming in support, the Democrats voting against.
The sponsors of the resolution, State Representatives Peter Stautberg (R) and Barbara Sears (R) were pleased with the outcome. Said Stautberg “For all Americans, this particular mandate was not simply about politics—it was about religious liberty. I applaud my colleagues in the Ohio House for supporting this resolution in the hope that we might send a message to Washington that there is no justification for the government to direct any church or any faith to contradict its core principles and values.”
Sears added, “It is clear that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has been a dramatic overreach and unnecessary bureaucratic hurdle that diminishes the quality of health care in the United States. This issue brought to light only one of the many examples of how the federal health care overhaul will not improve the delivery of health care but instead insert government control where it does not belong. The House’s actions today were an important step toward limiting the destructive nature of this flawed federal health care mandate.”
But not everyone was so happy with the turnout. Former Ohio House Speaker, Representative Armond Budish (D) released a statement attacking Ohio House Republicans for “their divisive partisan priorities that would limit access to contraception, Democrats are fighting to put working and middle class families first. Today, at the very same time that the House Health Committee was taking up this politically charged resolution, Democrats announced several common sense initiatives to protect Ohio jobs. Ohioans need good paying jobs, but Republicans have once again demonstrated that there is no end in sight to their extreme radical and divisive social agenda.”
Ouch.
Even though HCR 35 isn’t a law of any kind, it does make a strong statement to the Obama administration that Ohioans are not supportive of the HHS mandate and feel it is a violation of religious liberty.
With the Ohio House passing its own resolution, it’s a wonder if more state legislatures will pass their own resolutions, urging President Obama and HHS Secretary Sebelius to rescind their decision.
