Statement by Vicki Cowart, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, on the defeat in the Senate of Sen. Roy Blunt’s proposal to undermine health insurance and deny women birth control coverage

“This is an important victory. Today’s vote says that your boss won’t be able to decide which prescriptions you can get filled and which medical procedures you can have.

“For women, this vote is an important victory for covering contraception just like other preventive health care. The birth control benefit is critically important for millions of women, who have watched the debate over this benefit with disappointment and bewilderment.

“Today the U.S. Senate stood up for women’s health and basic health care, and defeated this extreme proposal that would have allowed any corporation or health plan to refuse to cover any health care service they object to, such as cancer screenings, maternity care, HIV/AIDS treatments and others.  

“A wide range of health care groups, including the American Cancer Society, the March of Dimes, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Spina Bifida Association joined Planned Parenthood in opposing this dangerous proposal.

“Colorado is one of 28 states that already require contraception coverage in health insurance plans similar to the new federal rule, thanks to House Bill 1021 signed into law by Gov. Bill Ritter in 2010. The federal rule is consistent with Colorado law, which already requires contraception coverage in health insurance plans.

“As a trusted health care provider to one in five women in America, Planned Parenthood believes that women, regardless of where they work, should have access to health insurance that covers preventive health care, including birth control, with no co-pays.

“The Blunt amendment would have rolled back an enormously popular benefit and undermined a fundamental principle of the health care law — that everyone in this country deserves a basic standard of health insurance coverage.”