NOW-NJ President, Suzannah Porter, is quoted in this article.  We got what we wanted -- a bill with no amendements!  This is the first of three related articles.  Click here for the second article.  Click here for the third article.

Assembly passes bill mandating health plan contraceptive coverage

By JEFFREY GOLD, AP, from Newsday.com, December 12, 2005

TRENTON, N.J. -- Women using prescription contraceptives would get coverage if their employee health plans have drug coverage, under a bill passed Monday by the state Assembly. The bill includes state workers.

The bill, approved 57-14, with five abstentions, excludes churches or religious schools from providing the benefit to their workers if the coverage conflicts with "bona fide religious beliefs and practices."

The bill now goes to acting Gov. Richard J. Codey for his signature.  It had passed the Senate, 27-11, in June 2004.  Codey, who is also Senate president, voted in favor of the bill.

His office said he continues to support the bill.

Assemblyman Guy R. Gregg, R-Hunterdon, Morris and Sussex, who was among those voting against the bill, argued that it might prompt some institutions to drop all prescription coverage.

But a sponsor, Assemblywoman Charlotte Vandervalk, R-Bergen, contended that a broad exemption for Catholic institutions failed in earlier attempts to pass the bill.

She also said the benefits of the bill, which she said could include preventing an abortion or miscarriage, outweigh the costs.

"We have to have this as a public policy in our state," Vandervalk said.

About 50 people from several groups that support abortion rights rallied at the Statehouse before the vote in favor of the bill, including members of the National Organization for Women.

NOW-NJ president Suzannah Porter said the group fought to prevent amendments that would have allowed large religiously affiliated employers, such as hospitals, to deny the benefit to workers. She said many workers in such institutions do not practice the same religion as the employer.

"We are done compromising," Porter told the demonstrators. "We are the majority of the voters and we will have our day."

The bill was among about 70 considered by the Assembly on Monday, the last time it is scheduled to meet this year.  Bills not sent to the governor's desk by Jan. 9 expire, and must be reintroduced in the new session, which starts Jan. 10.  Gov.-elect Jon S. Corzine is to be sworn in Jan. 17.

(Emphsis added.)