Fact Check: Obama Campaign Suggests GOP Wants Employers to Sign Off on Birth Control for Women
President Obama's reelection campaign is circulating a new and not entirely accurate visual to illustrate what's at stake in the Senate vote today.
It is an "Employer Authorization for Contraception" that is prefaced with the text, ""If Mitt Romney and a few Republican senators get their way, employers could be making women's health care decisions for them."
The visual is not entirely accurate. Senators today shot down the senate proposal that would have given all employers the right to a conscientious objection to offering coverage of birth control on religious grounds.
Democrats have said the proposal, authored by Sen. Roy Blunt, is an overreach and would give employers a new right. But there is no indication or requirement that employers would have to sign off on birth control coverage, as President Obama's website suggests.
ABC pointed out to Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt that women can and do obviously access birth control with or without their employer's permission. The amendment in question doesn't "make decisions for them" anymore than employers already do.
"Not if they can't afford it," This puts decision in hands of employers who can decide not to cover it," said LaBolt.
But Blunt said the Obama campaign graphic was inaccurate and no such employer authorization would required by his amendment.
"These blatant attempts to frighten and mislead Americans about this bipartisan provision are simply shameful. This bill includes the same conscience protection language that has been part of our law for almost 40 years, and it simply preserves and protects the fundamental religious freedom that Americans have enjoyed for more than 220 years," said Blunt in a statement. "Any attempts to argue otherwise are simply aimed at scaring Americans."