Nurses Take a Stand at the Supreme Court to Defend Women’s Health
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Washington, D.C. - Nurses from across the country converged at the United State Supreme Court Tuesday. They're taking a stand for what they say is the health of their patients against corporations who seek to limit what health insurance will cover for their female employees. The justices heard arguments in the Hobby Lobby case, which challenges the healthcare law's requirement that for-profit corporations' provide birth control coverage.
Nurse Kate Wendland Duncan of Pittsburgh made the trip to Washington because she sees it as a part of her job to advocate for her patients. She's worried it will be a slippery slope if corporations start making healthcare decisions for employees.
"It will give corporations a license, for the first time ever, to discriminate against and deny health care coverage for millions of Americans. And it might start with birth control now, but it could expand to cancer treatments, H.I.V. treatments."
Nurse Emily Stumpf of Buffalo says it's also a matter of patient privacy.
"And I really don't believe that it's any of the CEO's business to get involved in the private medical decisions of any employee."
The corporation, Hobby Lobby, Inc. employs 28,000 hourly wage workers and is claiming religious exemption from the birth control coverage in the law. The nurses say 99 percent of women use birth control at some point in their lives, so it makes no sense medically to exempt that coverage. They also argue that there shouldn't be any religious significance attached to a common prescription. They consider the coverage common-sense health policy.
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