Marco Rubio Reacts to Blunt Amendment Defeat in Senate

On Thursday, Democrats in control of the U.S. Senate rejected the amendment from U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., which would have permitted employers to refuse to cover health-care costs that are contrary to their religious beliefs -- mainly birth-control and contraception. The amendment went down on a 51-48 vote.

Earlier this year, the Obama administration backed a mandate that employers affiliated with religious organizations opposed to birth control would have to cover contraception costs as part of the federal health-care plan that Obama signed into law back in 2010.

Florida Republican U.S. Sen Marco Rubio was one of the co-sponsors of Blunts amendment and he said after the vote that this was a defeat for religion in the public square.

The Senates failure to pass Senator Blunts amendment is a setback for religious freedoms in America, Rubio said. We must stop the unconstitutional mandate under Obamacare that requires church-affiliated organizations to offer their workers private-insurance coverage without out-of-pocket charges for birth control, something they are morally opposed to. Telling religious-based organizations that they must, by mandate of the federal government, pay for things that religion teaches is wrong. You may not agree with what the religion believes, but thats not the point. The point is the First Amendment still applies. Religious freedom still exists.

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