Rule Shift on Birth Control is Concession to Obama Allies

Name: Janine                                                                           Current Even Posting Number: 1
Topic: Health (Subcategory: Money and Politics)
Author: Helene Copper and Laurie Goodstein
Publication Name: New York Times
Date of Publication: February 10, 2012
Length of article: 2 pages

For the White House, the decision announced Friday to soften a rule requiring religious-affiliated organizations to pay for insurance plans that offer free birth control was never really driven by a desire to mollify Roman Catholic bishops, who were strongly opposed to the plan, but for Sister carol Keehan- head of an influential Catholic hospital group. Catholic allies of the White house seen as the religious left who had supported President Obama's health care law. After days of raging political controversy, Obama announced that he is changing the way the administration is implementing its new rules about health care coverage for contraception. Under the rules the administration had originally proposed, employers affiliated with religious institutions would have been required to offer insurance plans that covered contraception. Under the new rules employers who object to that will not have to offer health coverage with contraception, but the insurers will. The result is that all women will be able to get contraception coverage at no cost. The administration's new approach won critical backing from elements of both sides. Planned Parenthood as well as the Catholic Health Association approve of this new plan. However the new approach is unlikely to quell the criticism from Catholic bishops, who had come out strongly against the administrations original proposal. Nor is it likely to silence the criticism from the Republican presidential candidates, who have attacked this as an example of (in their view) an administration that is at war with religion.
  This issue of mixing faith and matters of conscience was amplified by the fact that we are going into heat of a general election campaign, something that is amplifying the stakes for both sides. It is a difficult situation to settle for any administration, as Planned Parenthood at the Catholic Health Association have different views. Both parties agreed that churches would be exempt, the controversy revolved around  colleges, charities, and other religiously affiliated institutions that employed people of different faiths. However before making his announcement, Obama got all major parties involved to give their unqualified endorsements. Even Archbishop Dolan  grudgingly acknowledged that it was a step in the right direction on this issue.