The Senate voted Wednesday on a pointless political exercise – whether to proceed on a bill based on the premise that the Hobby Lobby decision by the Supreme Court erodes the right to use contraceptives.

The premise is wrong. That’s not just my view – even left-leaning newspapers such as the Washington Post have been ripping apart the claim.

But two of my Senate colleagues, Kelly Ayotte (right, above) of New Hampshire and Deb Fischer  (right, below) of Nebraska, lay out the facts in the Wall Street Journal far better than I can:

“The biggest distortion: the #NotMyBossBusiness campaign on Twitter, which falsely suggests that under the ruling employers can deny their employees acces

“That's flat-out false. Nothing in the Hobby Lobby ruling stops a woman from getting or filling a prescription for any form of contraception. … No employee is prohibited from purchasing any Food and Drug Administration approved drug or device, and contraception remains readily available and accessible for all women nationwide.”

Senators Ayotte and Fischer point out that even before Obamacare, more than 85% of large businesses already paid for contraceptives for employees. The federal government already has five programs, they write, to help poor women buy them. Access is not the issue.

Whether the government should be forcing anyone to buy something for someone else that violates her religious tenets is the issue. As Ayotte and Fischer put it:

“While some Americans may disagree with the Green family's views, nearly all Americans believe that religious freedom is a fundamental right that must not be abridged. When President Clinton signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, he said: ‘Our laws and institutions should not impede or hinder, but rather should protect and preserve fundamental religious liberties.’

“Congressional Democrats used to share that view. What's changed?”