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Bill Introduced To Force Businesses To Pay For Contraception For Employees
By: Jo Ingles | Statehouse News Bureau
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Democrats in the Ohio Legislature are introducing a bill that they say would require employer provided health care insurance plans that cover prescription drugs to cover contraceptives under the same terms without charging a co-pay.
State Representative Kathleen Clyde said the bill would make sure Ohio companies would not be able to use religious freedom as Hobby Lobby did in a recent Supreme Court case as a way to prevent their employees from getting IUDs and birth control pills.
“We have to act to protect women from interference from their employers in their personal, private health decisions," Clyde said. "We have to act because, plain and simple, your health care is not your boss’s business.”
Clyde said this bill would not go against the Supreme Court’s ruling because it affects private companies under limited parameters.
The bill would also mandate that companies could not discriminate against employees because of their reproductive health care decisions.