On the recordFebruary 9, 2012
I wish to take 2 minutes to respond to Senator Barrasso, who offered a second opinion. I hope my colleague will also talk about that. I have to say it is stunning to see the assault on women's health that is taking place from the Republican Party day after day after day. First, they tried to stop women from getting breast screenings. Then they tried to stop us from getting cervical cancer screenings. Now they are going after our ability to get birth control. I have to say this: We know that for a full 15 percent of women, birth control is pure medicine. They suffer from debilitating monthly pain, endometriosis. We have stories of women who couldn't afford birth control pills and a cyst got out of hand resulting in the loss of an ovary. We know that birth control is used for a very serious skin condition. So if they want to stand here and say that women don't have a right to our medicine, that is their right but don't put it into the frame of religious freedom. We know President Obama said he was going to do what 28 States have done; that is, to make sure women who work in this country have the ability to get access to birth control pills through their insurance. That is as simple as it gets. Twenty-eight States do it. I never heard a word out of them--never. And eight of those States had no exception when President Obama made an exception for 335,000 churches. So let's not stand here and talk about the overreach of the Federal Government and the rest of it.…





