Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. (Pic via Facebook)
Twenty U.S. senators have endorsed Sen. Marco Rubio’s effort to reverse a recent decision by the Obama administration to require that insurance providers — with the exception of religious employers — cover birth control as a preventive service, according to Rubio’s office.
The birth control mandate, which has been championed by women’s health advocates, would mean that women who have health insurance would not have to pay a co-payment for birth control. For many women, steep co-payments for birth control have become unaffordable and a barrier to contraception.
Rubio filed the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” this week, hoping to reverse the decision. Rubio called the Obama administration’s decision to make contraception more affordable for women a violation of “the conscience rights and religious liberties of our people.”
According to a statement from Rubio’s office, “20 of his colleagues have joined him as co-sponsors of this legislation.”
So far, two women and 18 men in the Senate have co-sponsored the legislation. Co-sponsors include:
- Senator Mitch McConnell;
- Senator John Boozman;
- Senator Saxby Chambliss;
- Senator Dan Coats;
- Senator Tom Coburn;
- Senator Susan Collins;
- Senator John Cornyn;
- Senator Mike Crapo;
- Senator Orrin Hatch;
- Senator John Hoeven;
- Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison;
- Senator Jon Kyl;
- Senator Mike Lee;
- Senator John McCain;
- Senator Rand Paul;
- Senator Jim Risch;
- Senator Jeff Sessions;
- Senator John Thune;
- Senator Pat Toomey;
- Senator David Vitter; and
- Senator Roger Wicker
Rubio is among a small group of legislators that receives money from a Catholic group that has been opposed to the mandate for some time.
