Murkowski Regrets Vote on Birth Control

Lisa Murkowski says she's had a change of heart on the Blunt amendment, and would vote against it if given a second chance. The Alaska Republican has taken heat from moderate women back home for supporting the amendment, which would have allowed employers to opt out of any health care mandate they morally objected to, she tells the Anchorage Daily News.

"I have never had a vote I've taken where I have felt that I let down more people that believed in me" until now, she says. While she'd intended to cast a vote for religious freedom, she said voters had seen it as a vote against contraceptive coverage. Asked if she'd vote for it again, she replied, "No." She added that Blunt had always been a "messaging amendment," meaning one that "both sides know is not going to pass." (More Lisa Murkowski stories.)