Editor’s Note: CNN reports the U.S. Senate voted to kill a controversial Republican-led proposal that would have allowed employers to avoid providing health care coverage they found morally objectionable, such as birth control. Put forward by Republican Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, the bill “is about the First Amendment,” he said in a February press release. “It’s not about any one issue.” Blunt first tried to bring the amendment to a vote in February by attaching it to a $109 billion piece of transportation legislation. By a 51-48 vote, the Democrats tabled the amendment.
Washington (CNN) — The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to kill a controversial proposal pushed by Republicans that would have allowed employers to opt out of providing health care coverage they disagree with on moral grounds.
By a 51-48 mostly party line vote, the motion by Democrats to table the amendment succeeded, effectively killing it. Three Democrats joined Republicans in opposing the tabling motion, while one Republican — retiring moderate Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine — voted with Democrats in favor.
The so-called “conscience” amendment, sponsored by Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, was the Senate Republicans’ response to the simmering controversy over a recent Obama administration decision to mandate the kind of health care coverage provided by religious employers.
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