Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) released a new video on Friday urging House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to abandon his plans to continue the fight in the House against contraception coverage.
Minutes before Sen. Roy Blunt's (R-Mo.) amendment, which would have allowed all employers to refuse to cover contraception for their employees for "moral reasons," failed in the Senate on March 1, Boehner vowed to take up the fight in the House.
"I think it's important for us to win this issue," Boehner told reporters at the time. He said the Obama administration's new contraception rule requiring most employers to cover birth control with no co-pay for their employees violates religious liberty.
Legislation has already been introduced in the House that would override the contraception policy. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry's (R-Neb.) Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, the companion bill to the Blunt Amendment, currently has 221 cosponsors.
Twelve Democratic Senators sent a letter to Boehner on International Women's Day urging him to drop "all politically-charged" efforts to deny women birth control coverage, and Murray is now rallying public support for that effort with a video and a Twitter campaign with the hashtag "#DropThePledge."
"Democratic Senators have united to urge Speaker Boehner to drop the pledge," the video says. "But we need your voice. Get involved. Urge @SpeakerBoehner to stop the attacks on #women & #birthcontrol."