[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 133 (Tuesday, September 29, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H9184]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RESPECT WILL OF HOUSE AND SENATE AND ALLOW WOMEN EQUAL BENEFITS UNDER 
                          FEDERAL HEALTH PLANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, last night the Treasury-Postal conference 
settled virtually everything except the controversy over contraceptives 
in this body.
  Normally, such controversies concern differences between the House 
and the Senate. There are no differences between the House and the 
Senate on the matter of allowing Federal employees options for 
contraception. This matter was won in the House; it was won in the 
Senate. There is an attempt to undemocratically overturn the will of 
this House and the will of the Senate in conference. Both the House and 
the Senate understood that this no-cost health necessity for women is 
elementary. Yet a group of men, largely of men, in this body is trying 
to reverse what the majority of two houses have done.
  What have we done? We simply require that health plans cover 
contraception as they do other prescriptions. Most of what men need in 
prescriptions are covered, yet many health plans do not cover 
contraception. This is essential for the health of American women, in 
this case Federal employees, because of vast differences in 
contraceptives.

  We all know, for example, of the pill. And there are some people who 
cannot take the pill. Some kinds of contraception do not work for some 
people. Some have serious side effects. Some are uncomfortable. Some 
have long-term effects and people do not wish to take the risk.
  Federal employees do not have the options necessary for their health 
today. Eighty percent, that is the vast majority of Federal plans, do 
not cover the range of available contraceptives and, thereby, are 
putting the health of women in the Federal service at risk. Ten percent 
do not cover contraception at all. Imagine that. Often plans cover 
abortion but not contraception. Really turns on its head the way we 
should be going at this issue.
  One reason why women of reproductive age spend 68 percent more in 
out-of-pocket costs for health care is this failure to cover 
contraception which most American women use and need. Most Americans, 
including the majority of pro-life voters, support the requirement that 
health insurance cover contraception. So why is it, then, that the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Chris Smith), the gentleman from 
Oklahoma (Mr. Istook), and all the Republicans on the conference 
committee on the House side, and even the gentlewoman from Kentucky 
(Mrs. Northup), who is on that committee, are trying to defeat the will 
of the majority in conference?
  The bipartisan Women's Caucus of this House supports this measure. 
This measure was won fair and square in committee, and then there was 
an attempt to overturn it here in the House. Now it has been won fair 
and square in both Houses, and democracy does not yet rule.
  This gets to be very personal, Mr. Speaker, because we are here not 
only talking about women's health, we are talking about the most 
personal side of their health: reproductive health. We have no right to 
limit what contraception a woman may use. The five leading methods, 
oral contraception, diaphragm, IUD, Norplant, and Depo-Provera, are 
none of them associated with abortion. That, of course, is already 
taken care of in the bill. Federal employees are put at considerable 
disadvantage by having their options limited in so basic a way.
  Allow women equal benefits under Federal health plans. Let the will 
of the majority of the House and Senate prevail. Do not give in to an 
energetic minority not committed either to women or to democracy in 
this body.

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