Opposition Strikes At ‘Obamacare’ On Birth Control

Republican state lawmakers are opening another front in the war against President Obama’s health care overhaul.

They’re seizing on the hot-button issue of birth control, with bills allowing insurers to ignore the federal requirement to cover free contraception.

In Idaho, the first state to pass a law requiring a lawsuit over the 2010 federal health overhaul, a legislator is pushing to exempt insurers from the new requirement they provide coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization and contraception.

Missouri and Arizona legislation would also allow employers to refuse to provide coverage for birth control, abortions or sterilization procedures.

The state bills are meant to underscore recent religious groups’ protest of federal requirements that church-affiliated institutions including universities must include birth control coverage in insurance plans.