Statement from Stephanie Schriock on Importance of Birth Control Coverage

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The following is a statement from EMILY’s List President Stephanie Schriock on the importance of birth control coverage.

“We don’t get to make other people’s medical and private decisions for them, and we don’t get to cherry pick who gets what kind of health care. It is a great accomplishment of President Obama, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and leaders in Congress like Senator Barbara Mikulski that women’s health care in this country is profoundly better now than it has ever been in our nation’s history: being a woman no longer counts as a pre-existing condition, and literally millions of women can now have access to birth control without having to sacrifice other critical things their families need. This is about those real women: What’s really at stake here is the impact on real people, like the nurse who works for modest pay at the religiously affiliated hospital, or the secretary at a university.

“Respect for people’s religious beliefs does not mean that your boss gets to decide what kind of health care you get. Respect for people’s religious beliefs and their individual liberty means individuals get to decide what kind of religion they practice and what health care is right for them. A person may decide not to use a medication, but that’s their decision. Institutions that serve a broader public have an obligation to respect our nation’s core value of individual liberty, as we respect their religious beliefs.

“The core of our democracy is at stake if Romney and the right wing impose a structure where some women have to choose between second class citizenship and diminished access to health care or their job.”

In the 2009-2010 cycle, EMILY's List raised more than $38.5 million to support its mission of recruiting and supporting women candidates, helping them build strong campaigns, and mobilizing women voters to turn out and vote. With a community of more than 1,000,000 members across the country, EMILY's List is one of the largest political action committees in the nation. Since its founding in 1985, EMILY's List has worked to elect 87 pro-choice Democratic women to the U.S. House, 16 to the U.S. Senate, nine governors, and hundreds of women to the state legislatures, state constitutional offices, and other key local offices. In the 2009-2010 cycle, EMILY's List had the largest number of members and donors in our 27 year history.