Murkowski Regrets Contraception Vote
It’s too late now, but Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) would have voted differently on contraception if she could do it all over again. In an interview with Anchorage Daily News, Murkowski said she wouldn’t have voted in favor of Roy Blunt’s amendment if she could go back in time, and that she’d taken heat from Alaska women for supporting it. “I have never had a vote I’ve taken where I have felt that I let down more people that believed in me,” Murkowski said. Blunt’s amendment would have allowed employers to opt out of providing birth control or any coverage mandate on moral or religious grounds. Murkowski had intended to make a statement on religious freedom, not against contraception coverage for women. She said Blunt’s amendment was a “messaging amendment” that “both sides know is not going to pass.” The Senate voted 51–48 against the amendment, with Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) the only Republican who voted against it.
Yet, I would vote the Constitution and the 1st Amendment for the better good of all than the political dealings of the controversy of the day. This is the way I am learning to vote.