Todd Tiahrt: “Mr. Chairman, I am not sure where the gentlewoman got her information from about how the Federal Government health care…”

“Mr. Chairman, I am not sure where the gentlewoman got her information from about how the Federal Government health care plans are not covering contraceptives. I had my office contact the Office of Personnel Management, and every health care provider for Federal employees currently provides full prescription coverage for the pill, the predominant method of choice of child-bearing age in this country. Furthermore, according to the Office of Personnel Management, over 75 percent of all Federal employees currently have coverage which includes all FDA-approved methods. Now those FDA-approved methods or drugs and devices include the pill, the diaphragm, IUDs, Norplant, Depo-Provera and the morning-after abortion pill, and under the proposed amendment, as soon as the FDA would approve the abortion pill, the French abortion pill RU-486, it would also be covered. But currently 75 percent of all Federal employees do have coverage, so to say that they do not have access to contraceptives is misleading to the American public because they do have that opportunity now.”