From the Arkansas Times in 2012: "Huckabee: For contraception mandate before he opposed it"

[highplainsdem]

Thanks to Bill Scher of the Campaign for America's Future for blogging about these news stories from early 2012

http://ourfuture.org/20140123/when-huckabee-supported-government-mandated-birth-control-coverage

(And thanks to LOLGOP on Twitter for retweeting Scher's tweet about it this morning.)

From the Arkansas Times, February 15, 2012:

http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2012/02/15/huckabee-for-contraception-mandate-before-he-opposed-it

Interesting LA Times story:

Mike "We Are All Catholics Today" Huckabee, when he was Arkansas governor, apparently signed a health insurance mandate law in 2005 that included contraception in preventive care. He was among many Republicans in many states who did the same.

Oops. In Arkansas, that law had two Republican co-sponsors. More checking will be required. But I hope Sen. Missy Irvin and the ALEC squad is on the lookout for these apostates.

The background, as I've mentioned here before, is that the federal EEOC said in 2000 that all employers with more than 15 workers must cover contraceptives for women if they offer health plans that cover preventive services and prescription drugs. Many states, including Arkansas, passed mandates into law. Republicans supported the legislation, in states such as Iowa, Arizona and, in 2001, New York, where George Pataki signed the legislation.

From the LA Times:

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/feb/15/nation/la-na-gop-contraceptives-20120216

Four years later, the Arkansas law easily cleared that state's Legislature, with help from Republican lawmakers, including two GOP cosponsors. Huckabee signed it in April 2005.

He defended the law in a statement. "Religious employers are not required to comply with this policy," he said. "My position is, and always has been, that religious entities shouldn't be forced to pay for contraception."

But like the original federal regulation proposed by Obama, the Arkansas law did not exempt church-affiliated hospitals and universities. It exempts only "religious employers" that are nonprofit organizations whose primary mission is "the inculcation of religious values," and primarily employ people who share the same religion, a standard few Catholic hospitals meet.

As the Arkansas Times article explained in the update, it was the Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage Act: "If plans provide prescription coverage, they must cover birth control."

Direct link to the bill on the Arkansas legislature's website:

http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2005/R/Acts/Act2217.pdf

Max Brantley at the Arkansas times pointed out that the bill Huckabee signed went even farther than the Obama compromise "in mandating coverage under health policies issued by institutions with religious affiliations if they don't exist primarily for that purpose and don't primarily employ people of that religion."

[nyquil_man]

1. The Huckster's had a long trek to the far right.

It seems he's only a "moderate" when the legislature is 75% Democratic.

[Frustratedlady]

2. That damned internet will come back to bite you in the butt!

The Republicans keep forgetting that people can dig just about anything out of the archives. We are fortunate that there are people with good memories who can find the juicy tidbits.

Then, again...when you're on a leash and only fed Repub talking points, you're bound to forget a few of your "bad decisions" of the past. Their keepers should sit them down and have a little conversation to remind them of their speeches or opinions of yesteryear.