Political Quotes

“I wish to take this opportunity to speak in support of the Murray legislation to protect women's health from corporate interference. Because of an obligation to speak at a memorial service tomorrow, I will not be able to speak tomorrow morning. I feel so strongly about this issue that I would like to say a few words today. This legislation ensures that the personal opinion of an employer doesn't trump the medical opinion of a doctor. I sure wish this legislation were not necessary, but, unfortunately, because of the recent Supreme Court decision now known as the Hobby Lobby decision, it is necessary. Let's talk about how we got here. As the Presiding Officer knows, we worked on health care reform. We were so concerned that over 40 million people didn't have access to health care. We were concerned that just being a woman was treated as a preexisting condition. We were charged double for our insurance, and we often had to pay significant copayments for those procedures related to early detection and screening, for those procedures that would affect us such as mammogram care. So on a bipartisan basis we ended that discrimination so women couldn't be charged more than men of the same age or comparable health status. We also wanted to be sure we could do preventive health care benefits. That was an amendment I offered on the Senate floor. We had a spirited debate, even with Senator Murkowski.…”