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NOW-NJ's efforts get extensive coverage in this article.
In addition, NOW-NJ's president, Suzannah Porter is quoted.
This is the third of three related articles.
Click here for the first article.
Click here for the second article.
Codey
gets coverage bill
on
birth control
Employers would pay cost
of
prescribed contraception
BY
RICK HEPP, Star-Ledger Staff, December 13, 2005
Employer health plans
that offer drug coverage would have to pay for doctor-prescribed
contraception under a bill headed to acting Gov. Richard Codey
for his signature.
The controversial bill (A292) excludes churches or religious
schools from having to pay for contraception if it conflicts
with the employer's "bona fide religious beliefs and practices."
Those employers, however, cannot exclude coverage for
contraceptives that are necessary to "preserve the life or
health" of the employee. And the exemption does not extend
to church-run hospitals or other organizations.
The Assembly passed the bill by a 57-14 margin yesterday, more
than a year after the Senate passed similar legislation by a
27-11 vote. It now goes to Codey, who as Senate president
voted for the proposal.
Legislators estimate the bill will cost state government as much
as $1.4 million annually to cover its female employees'
contraceptive prescriptions. Local government agencies
could be faced with costs as high as $4.8 million to cover their
employees' prescriptions.
Representatives from Planned Parenthood and the ACLU have
praised the contraception coverage bill, calling it "an issue of
basic fairness and equity."
The National Organization for Women of New Jersey -- which
held a demonstration in front of the Statehouse in Trenton
before yesterday's vote -- points out that employer health plans
typically cover drugs that help erectile dysfunction.
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 New Jersey Catholic Conference, which represents the various
dioceses in the state, had fought to get other church
ministries, such as Catholic Charities and Catholic-run
hospitals, excluded from the bill because it would force them to
go against the church's teachings.
Calling it "one of the most serious invasions of church autonomy
imaginable," the conference threatened that the bill's passage
could force those institutions to cancel prescription drug
coverage for their employees. New Jersey Catholic
Conference Executive Director William F. Bolan Jr. was
unavailable last night for comment on the legislation's passage.
New Jersey is not alone in trying to make employers pay for
prescribed contraception. Legislation is being considered
in states all across the country and in Congress, to
specifically mandate contraceptive equity in health insurance
coverage. If the bill is signed by Codey, New Jersey would
become the 23rd state to enact such provisions, according to the
National Women's Law Center.
The Associated Press contributed to this
report.
(Emphasis added.)
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