House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) on Sunday refused to say if some women would lose access to birth control benefits after Republicans repeal President Barack Obama's health care reform law.
The Wisconsin Republican promised during an interview on CNN that the repeal of Obamacare would lower the costs of health care by providing "vouchers" to poor Americans.
CNN host Jake Tapper noted that many women were paying nothing for birth control thanks to an Affordable Care Act mandate.
"Is that going to end?" he wondered.
"Look, I'm not going to get into all the little nitty-gritty details of these things," Ryan replied curtly.
"With all due respect," Tapper countered, "I don't know that the average woman of childbearing years out there who relies upon contraception provided by health insurance mandated by the Affordable Care Act, I don't know that she would think that that's just a nitty-gritty detail."
"You're asking me details about legislation that hasn't been written yet!" Ryan complained.
"Right, but would that be a principle of whatever replaces [Obamacare]?" Tapper wondered.
"I'm not going to get into hypotheticals about legislation that hasn't even been drafted," Ryan stated defiantly.
Ryan has co-sponsored the Sanctity of Human Life Act, which would give fetuses the same rights as human beings. The measure would have also criminalized certain types of birth control. Ryan, who is Catholic, has called the Affordable Care Act's birth control mandate a "threat" to poor Americans.
