#AceBreakingNews – UNITED STATES (Washington) – July 16 Senators blocked legislation Wednesday that would have required Hobby Lobby and other private employers with religious interests to pay for birth control.

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The Senate rejected, by a 56-43 vote, the first procedural motion to advance the bill. Sixty votes were needed to limit debate on the motion to proceed. Republican members Susan Collins of Maine, Mark S. Kirk of Illinois and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted with nearly all Democrats in favor of cloture.

Before the vote closed, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., switched his vote for procedural reasons.

The bill (S 2578) would upend a Supreme Court ruling last month in a case involving Hobby Lobby, in which they argued that they should not have to cover employees’ contraception, as required by President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, because of the owner’s religious beliefs. The Supreme Court agreed.

The measure, sponsored by Democrats Patty Murray of Washington and Mark Udall of Colorado, would prevent employers from refusing to cover contraception or any other type of health coverage guaranteed under federal law for their employees and dependents.

Republicans united in opposition, with some calling the legislation an attempt to restrict religious freedoms.

#ANS2014 

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