GOP Withholds Contraceptive Coverage

As part of last-minute deal-making, Republican congressional leaders on Wednesday jettisoned a ground-breaking provision to require federal health plans to cover the cost of five commonly used contraceptives.

The measure, along with three other controversial provisions, was dropped in order to win passage of the 1999 Treasury spending bill, which provides roughly $27 billion to fund the Treasury Department, the Postal Service, the executive office of the president and several independent federal agencies. The bill passed on a vote of 290-137 Wednesday night.

The contraception measure was the only one of the deleted provisions that had won bipartisan support in both the House and Senate. But it was excised from the Treasury bill after heavy lobbying by a core group of antiabortion House conservatives.

The federal employee health insurance plan is a bellwether for health coverage nationwide, and Wednesday’s development was viewed as a setback to efforts to provide broader contraceptive coverage for women.

The disputed measure sought to provide coverage for use of oral contraceptives, the diaphragm, intrauterine devices, injectable contraceptives such as Depo-Provera and implants such as Norplant. Only 19% of federal health plans cover all five major methods of contraception, while 10% of plans cover none, according to the federal Office of Personnel Management.

“It is basic women’s health care that will prevent unwanted pregnancies and reduce abortions,” said Rep. Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.), the lead sponsor of the provision.

Lowey took to the floor to decry the decision to kill the proposal. “A majority of the House supported this provision, the Senate supported it and the Republican [House] leadership tried to kill it at every turn. This is an outrage. It’s a slap in the face for every woman.”

But such arguments held little water in the final hours of debate over how to get the larger spending bill passed. A House-Senate conference report on the bill had already been defeated once last week by an unlikely coalition of GOP and Democratic lawmakers who objected to the controversial provisions in it.

“We had four issues that were irritating, and we just took them all out,” said Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.), chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

Moderate Republicans who previously had joined with Democrats in backing the contraceptive coverage provision decided to accept the stripped-down bill.

“I support the contraceptive provision, I wanted it in the bill, but I also want to get the bill passed,” said Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), who chairs the panel that has jurisdiction over the bill.

Another contentious item taken out of the bill would have granted permanent residency to about 40,000 Haitian immigrants who otherwise are at risk of being forced to leave the country. A similar action was approved last year for thousands of Cuban and Nicaraguan immigrants, and advocates of the Haitians argued they deserve the same change in their residence status.

Lawmakers of both parties from Florida and New York, which have large Haitian populations, lobbied extensively for this provision. But opponents, led by Rep. Lamar S. Smith (R-Texas), contended it would set a precedent that could inspire other immigrant groups to seek similar blanket changes in their immigration status.

A third provision that drew fire was one sponsored by Republicans that would have imposed a four-year term limit on the general counsel and staff director of the Federal Election Commission. Democrats charged that Republicans had added the provision to the pending bill because they were upset that the current general counsel had recommended investigations of GOP-affiliated groups.

Republican moderates sought to blame Democrats for the deletion of the contraceptive provision. They said that, if Democrats had accepted the term limits for the FEC officials, then the version of the bill that included the contraceptive coverage would have become law.