Pressure mounts on White House over contraception decision
Updated 12:35 p.m. ET
Almost three weeks after the Obama administration ruled employers must provide health insurance that includes birth control and other preventative health services for women, the backlash continues to grow. And it could be enough for the administration to reverse or alter its decision - largely because some of the fall-out is coming from the crucial swing voters Mr. Obama will need to win re-election.
In Pennsylvania, a key swing state with plenty of Catholic voters, Sen. Bob Casey, has called on the president to "immediately" reverse his decision to mandate that religious-affiliated organizations, including hospitals and schools, provide coverage for contraception in employee health insurance plans. (Churches do not have to comply).
In a letter to the president, the pro-choice Catholic lawmaker said "religiously-affiliated organizations like hospitals and universities should not be compelled by our federal government to purchase insurance policies that violate their religious and moral conviction."
Casey said 90 Catholic organizations in Pennsylvania, including charities, hospitals and universities, would be forced to comply.
At the same time, liberal Sen. Barbara Boxer praised the administration's decision on the Senate floor and said her progressive colleagues "are not going to go quietly into the night on this one."
Some religious organizations are also behind the administration's decision. In their own letter to the president, 23 religious organizations, including Catholics for Choice and Episcopal Divinity School, wrote that they support the decision.
"We respect individuals' moral agency to make decisions about their sexuality and reproductive health without governmental interference or legal restrictions," the coalition wrote. "We do not believe that specific religious doctrine belongs in health care reform - as we value our nation's commitment to church-state separation."
That puts the Obama administration in a difficult spot. The politics of reproduction in the United States are contentious.
Susan G. Komen for the Cure's decision to cut, and then reinstate, funding for Planned Parenthood caused a firestorm among women and pro-choice advocates. And the right - and some in the left - are voicing concerns about the president's decision on health insurance and contraception.
Some high-profile liberals say the move could backfire on the president.
Liberal Washington Post columnist E.J Dionne, who is mostly supportive of Mr. Obama, wrote in a column over the weekend that the president "utterly botched" this decision. "Obama threw his progressive Catholic allies under the bus, strengthened the very forces inside the Church that sought to derail the health care law, and created unnecessary problems for himself in the 2012 election," Dionne wrote.
But evidence also shows that the decision might not be that unpopular among voters. According to a poll by the Public Religion Research Institute, 55 percent of all Americans and 58 percent of Catholics think contraception should be covered by an employer, although that number drops slightly when religious institutions have the require contraception.
The president has strong support behind the decision. A group of women members of Congress are taking on the critics. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday, Democratic Senators Barbara Boxer of California, Patty Murray of Washington and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire said the decision will help millions of women get the affordable care they need."
"Catholic hospitals and charities are woven into the fabric of our broader society," the senators wrote. "They serve the public, receive government funds, and get special tax benefits. We have a long history of asking these institutions to play by the same rules as all our other public institutions."
Catholic organizations in Texas announced that they will not abide by the new decision. A Catholic hospital network there, Seton Healthcare Family, said it has "no plans to change" its restriction on contraceptive coverage, according to the Texas Tribune.
The Catholic church strongly denounced the rule change immediately after it was announced January 20. A letter was read during mass that said the president "has cast aside the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our nation's first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty."
A top adviser to the Obama campaign, David Axelrod, signaled Tuesday that Mr. Obama may be open to changes.
"We're going to look for a way to move forward that both provides women with the preventive care that they need and respects the prerogatives of religious institutions," he said in an interview on MSNBC.
And White House spokesperson Jay Carney left the door open for possible tweaks to the policy.
"The president is committed to making sure that all women have access to these important preventive services," he said Tuesday. "But I think it is important to remember what was clearly stated when this policy decision was announced and that is that we will be working with those organizations and individuals who have concerns about the implementation of this rule."
Republican presidential candidates have also jumped on this decision calling it an "attack" and a "war" on religious freedom.
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I'm therefore stripping practically everything out of my employees' policies. If I can't, I won't be able to sleep nights, because I would have a guilty conscience imagining to what unnatural ends they might choose to apply their insurance, and of course I can't be stopped from stripping out those policies, because my Republican friends are backing me on this, since it is a matter of my own religious freedom.
Plus, I save a lot on the health premiums I pay to cover my work force, since their pay package basically only includes chiropractic care and homeopathy, which don't offend my religious scruples because I deem them entirely ineffective.
You sound afraid.
Good!
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Yep, me and 58% of registered repubs wished the GOP could come up with a better clown car instead of the one they're driving into FL this summer. I'm afraid the GOP has no hope of taking the White House or holding onto the House.
At least that is how it should be, unless some bishop wants to make those decisions for you.
My question to the bishops -- "Would you also feel morally compelled to control how I spend the cash portion of my pay package, if you thought you had that power?" (and: Isn't your conscience just a bit overexpanded??)
For instance shouldn't the government regulate the price of aspirin tablets?
Shouldn't the government stop the practice of waking patients to take sleeping pills?
If it is part of it, what if the USSC decides that this healthcare plan is unconstitutional. Would that effectively neutralize this provision?
"I'm not trying to push my beliefs on anyone. Just don't want to pay for your birth control. Either hold a nickel between your knees or buy it yourself."
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Classic, I love it! This statement should be quoted every time someone brings this subject up. Women are more than free to have abortions and birth control just so long as they pay for them.
If you don't want pay then don't play!!!!!!!!!!!!
If an innocent victim is shot by a thug, should his wounds be the concern of government or not?
But, come to think of it, as an employer, I could save a lot of money if I suddenly discover that I conscientiously object to my worker's receiving organ transplants -- my health insurance bill will really go down when I strip that out. --Don't like it? Well I have a constitutional right to freedom of religion, and that means I have the right to make moral choices for my workers, and to deny them any sort of coverage I feel like on that basis, so you can just shove it.
This is what I was told when I said the right to work law in Indiana finally gave workers rights back. The pro union idiots said you have the right not to join a union already "Just apply to a non union company". So the same should apply here if you want contraceptive insurance find an employer who offers it!
This is about as politically stupid as you can get...but that's "progressives" for you. Leave them to their own devices and they will march the Democratic Party off their far left wing cliff every time.
The 2012 Presidential election os going to be a close election and this is the type of issue than can cause a shift of 2-3% of moderate and independent voters from the Democrats to the Republicans. That's all it takes for a Republican victory.
The Obama Administration had better find a compromise solution...FAST!