Senate Votes On GOP Amendment To Protect Religious Liberty From Obamacare Mandate

“You don’t ‘accommodate’ religious liberties, you respect them. That’s why they are enshrined in the Constitution. Those Constitutional protections should prevent the President from trampling the conscience rights of Americans and religious institutions who hold a strong belief that contraceptives, sterilizations and medicines that cause abortions are wrong. Clearly, however, these Constitutional protections are not enough." ~ Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) [US Senate Floor, Feb. 28, 2012]

Update 12:20 PM: The Senate voted 51-48  to table the Blunt amendment to amend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to protect rights of conscience and to allow the law's religious liberty violations to continue. The Democrats majority supported infringement on religious liberty.  ANOTHER REASON TO REPEAL OBAMACARE!
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Today in Washington, D.C. - March 1, 2012:
The Senate resumed consideration of S. 1813, the highway bill.  At 11 AM, the Senate began a vote on Sen. Roy Blunt’s (R-MO) amendment that would protect the rights of conscience of religious institutions, preventing them from being forced to pay for things that violate their religious beliefs. Additional votes on amendments are possible today.

This morning, the  House passed (339-80) S. 1134 (HR 1134)  the St. Croix River Crossing Project with appropriate mitigation measures to promote river values.  The House also passed (417-1) H. Res. 556 which condemns the Government of Iran for its continued persecution, imprisonment, and sentencing to death of Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani on the charge of apostasy.

This morning, senators are voting on Sen. Roy Blunt’s (R-MO) amendment, which would block the mandate in President Obama’s unpopular health care law that would force religious employers to fund health care plans that provide contraceptive services in violation of their religious beliefs. Ever since Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced that religious employers would not be fully exempted from the mandate in Democrats’ health care law, Senate Republicans have been blasting the Obama administration for its assault on religious liberty and calling for a vote to roll back these regulations.

As Politico wrote at the beginning of February, Senate Republicans . . . stepped up their assault on the White House’s politically volatile contraceptive coverage mandate, vowing to find some way of striking it if the administration didn’t roll back the rules itself. Using unusually strong language in a floor speech, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called the new policy ‘abhorrent’ and said the administration had crossed a ‘dangerous line’ with its decision to require employers to offer birth control for free as a preventive health benefit in health plans, a decision that was part of the implementation of the 2010 health care reform law.”

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