BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SR 55|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SR 55
Author: Jackson (D)
Amended: 8/4/14
Vote: Majority
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE : 4-2, 8/12/14
AYES: Jackson, Lara, Leno, Monning
NOES: Anderson, Vidak
NO VOTE RECORDED: Corbett
SUBJECT : Reproductive health
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This resolution urges the United State Senate to
reconsider and approve Senate Bill 2578, referred to as the Not
My Boss's Business Act, which will prevent employers from
denying coverage of contraceptives regardless of their religious
views. This resolution also reaffirms the decision of Roe v.
Wade (1973) 410 U.S. 113, which acknowledges that reproductive
choice is a fundamental right that belongs to all women.
ANALYSIS : This resolution makes the following legislative
findings:
1. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
maintains that family planning is one of the 10 great public
health achievements of the 20th Century.
2. The United States Congress required health plans to cover all
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Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - approved methods of
contraception for women with no out-of-pocket costs as part
of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
(ACA), and nearly 30 million women across the United States
have already benefited from that provision.
3. In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (2014) 573 U.S. ____,
the Supreme Court concluded that closely-held corporations
cannot be required to provide contraceptive coverage if the
corporations' owners have religious objections to the
contraception.
4. Nearly two-thirds of minimum wage workers are women, the
impact of the decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.
is expected to fall more heavily on low-income women whose
access to health care is frequently limited.
5. As noted in Justice Ginsburg's dissent, the cost of an
intrauterine device (IUD) "is nearly equivalent to a month's
full-time pay for workers earning the minimum wage."
6. According to the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics,
more than 99% of women use birth control at some point in
their lives, and approximately 62% of all women of
reproductive age are currently using a contraceptive method.
7. Any decisions to use contraceptives should be made by a woman
in consultation with her health care providers and not her
employer.
8. California has always prioritized women's health care,
including passing the groundbreaking Women's Contraception
Equity Act in 1999 (Act), which requires employer-based
health plans that cover a variety prescription drugs to also
cover a variety of prescription contraceptive methods.
9. There is concern that corporations may attempt to misuse the
precedent set by Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. to
unduly restrict women's health care options or seek religious
exemptions from other generally applicable laws.
This resolution urges the United State Senate to reconsider and
approve Senate Bill 2578, referred to as the Not My Boss's
Business Act, which will prevent employers from denying coverage
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of contraceptives regardless of their religious views. This
resolution also reaffirms the decision of Roe v. Wade (1973) 410
U.S. 113, which acknowledges that reproductive choice is a
fundamental right that belongs to all women.
Background
In 1999, California enacted the Women's Contraception Equity Act
(AB 39 (Hertzberg, Chapter 532, Statutes of 1999) to require
health care service plan contracts that cover outpatient
prescription drugs to also cover various prescription
contraceptive methods approved by the FDA. The Act contains a
religious employer exemption which authorizes a religious
employer to request a health care service plan contract without
coverage for federal FDA-approved contraceptive methods that are
contrary to the religious employer's religious tenets.
More recently, in 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law
the federal Patient Protection and the Affordable Care Act
(ACA), which ensures health care coverage for all Americans,
regardless of preexisting conditions or sex, by imposing an
individual mandate and enacting various reforms to the health
insurance market. For example, any non-grandfathered group
health plan and health insurance issuer offering group or
individual insurance coverage must provide coverage, without
imposing cost-sharing requirements (such as co-pays,
co-insurance, or deductibles), for certain preventive services.
Most pertinent to this bill, under the ACA and resulting U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regulations,
health plans must cover all FDA-approved methods of
contraception for women with no out-of-pocket costs to the
individual, with the exception of religious employers. For
these purposes, religious employers are defined under the ACA to
mean nonprofit organizations under specified provisions of the
Internal Revenue Code, which primarily apply to churches and
other houses of worship. Other accommodations are made for
non-exempt, non-profit religious organizations that object to
contraceptive coverage on religious grounds. Under an
accommodation, an eligible organization does not have to
contract, arrange, pay, or refer for contraceptive coverage,
though separate payments for contraceptive services are
available for women in the health plan of the organization, at
no cost to the women or to the organization.
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As a result of the "contraceptive mandate" in the ACA, several
for-profit companies that would not otherwise qualify under the
existing ACA accommodations brought suit alleging that the law's
mandate violates the company owners' exercise of religion. The
U.S. Supreme Court agreed and held in the case of Burwell v.
Hobby Lobby, Inc. (2014) U.S. LEXIS 4505 that the HHS
regulations that impose an obligation to provide four specific
FDA-approved methods of contraceptives ("the contraceptive
mandate"), as applied to closely-held corporations whose owners
held religious beliefs that providing coverage for those
specific contraceptives will help facilitate abortions, violates
the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). In
response to the Hobby Lobby decision, Senators Patty Murray
(D-Wash.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) introduced Senate Bill 2578,
the ''Protect Women's Health from Corporate Interference Act of
2014,'' or "Not My Boss's Business Act," to overturn that
decision, but a motion to debate the bill on the floor was
defeated 56-43 (the motion required 60 votes in order to
advance), on July 16th. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has
indicated that the issue will be voted on again "before the year
is out." (Hunter, Birth-Control Insurance Bill Rejected by U.S.
Senate, Bloomberg (Jul. 16, 2014)
[as of Aug. 6, 2014].)
FISCAL EFFECT : Fiscal Com.: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/15/14)
American Association of University Women - California
American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists - District
IX
California Family Health Council
California Primary Care Association
NARAL Pro-Choice America
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California
Center for Reproductive Rights and Justice
Nevada County Citizens for Choice
Physicians for Reproductive Health
OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/15/14)
California Catholic Conference of Bishops
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ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author, "SR 55
reaffirms that women are entitled, as a matter of right, to
control their bodies and, without that right, they will never
have control over their lives. This resolution challenges the
notion that bosses [or] politicians . . . can take away women's
rights and their most fundamental and personal choices."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : In opposition to SR 55, the
California Conference of Bishops writes, "[ . . . ] SB 2578
[(which this resolution urges the U.S. Senate to reconsider and
approve)] would override the Religious Freedom Restoration Act
(RFRA) and "any other provision of Federal law" that is
perceived to get in the way of whatever particular special
concern to which an individual or group believes they are
entitled. In this case, crippling penalties could be imposed on
businesses, sponsors and issuers of insurance who provide
generous health care coverage to their employees, but object in
conscience to a specific "item or service." In the future, this
could include RU-486 [i.e. Mifepristone, a medication that can
end an early pregnancy] or elective surgical abortions. As
proposed, employees themselves, and women and men buying
individual coverage also would have no right to object."
AL:d 8/16/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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