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Women’s ‘pill bill’ dies again
Contraception: Planned Parenthood director tells lawmakers to provide ‘health care that eliminates the need for abortion’
Insurance and business leaders gave the all-male (emphasis Blogula Rasa’s) Senate Health and Human Services Committee the reasons they were looking for to kill the so-called “pill bill” for the eighth year in a row Wednesday – complaints about unfunded mandates, health care costs and meddling in the marketplace.
Sen. Scott McCoy, a Salt Lake City Democrat, argued SB42 would simply put in law what most Utah insurance companies already provide – coverage of birth control pills and other contraception for women.
“Every single private [insurance] plan in Utah offers contraceptive coverage. Every small business in this state is already paying for plans to have this coverage,†he said. “It’s time we put it in statute.”
Another issue that cuts close to the bone for me, and the vote is really close. If you feel strongly about it, give your legislator a call. Women’s reproductive health is too important to spend 8 years in legislative limbo while men whose futures aren’t at stake play politics.