The Respect for Rights of Conscience Act of 2011

On March 1st, the Senate voted against this amendment to restore the religious liberty protections for employers who don’t want to be forced to pay for birth control or drugs that may cause abortions in their employee health plans.

The final vote was 51-48; the Blunt Amendment has been tabled.

Click here for Senator Blunt's statement about the vote

Click here to see how your Senator voted
A "Nay" vote to oppose tabling the amendment is pro-life, a "Yea" vote to kill the amendment by tabling it is not.

HR 1179 & S 1467 – The Respect for Rights of Conscience Act

This measure, introduced in the House (HR 1179) and the Senate (S 1467), would amend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) to allow a health care plan to decline to cover specific items and services, such as abortion and abortion-causing drugs, that are contrary to the religious beliefs of the entity offering the plan or the purchaser or beneficiary of the plan.

The bill would also establish a right of conscience for health care providers so that no part of Obamacare could be used to force a health care worker to provide, participate in, or refer for abortions or other items or services that are contrary to the provider’s religious beliefs or moral convictions.

Text

The text of HR 1179 may be found at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.1179:

The text of S 1467 may be found at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:S.1467:

Co-sponsors

HR 1179 has 201 co-sponsors.

S 1467 has 37 co-sponsors.

Status – S 1467

8-2-11 Introduced in the Senate and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

2-9-12 Senators Blunt, McConnell, Rubio, Ayotte, Hatch, Johanns, Wicker, Ben Nelson, and others introduced Amendment #1520 to S. 1813, the Surface Transportation bill. This amendment includes the complete text of Senator Blunt, Rubio, and Ayotte’s bill, The Respect for Rights of Conscience Act of 2011 (S. 1467).

Statements – S 1467

Senator Blunt’s Response To President Obama’s Remarks On HHS Mandate