The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Boehner against birth control mandate

Employers must cover contraceptives despite religious beliefs.

State directs $2.1M for scholarships
8:40 p.m.
Health policy help on way
8:27 p.m.
Parade to mark Memorial Day in Lebanon
6:01 p.m.
Lebanon updates law banning vicious dogs
5:59 p.m.
Emergency response team offers training
5:57 p.m.
> More headlines

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press 10:16 PM Thursday, February 2, 2012

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration scrambled Thursday to contain a growing election-year outcry over its decision that church-affiliated employers must cover birth control regardless of their religious principles.

House Speaker John Boehner, a Roman Catholic, called the requirement unconstitutional while White House spokesman Jay Carney said it is part of a reasoned policy to promote women’s health and does not encourage abortion.

Under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law, most employers and insurance plans will have to cover birth control free of charge as preventive care for women.

Churches and houses of worship do not have to follow that requirement, but administration officials recently announced that many religious-affiliated institutions such as hospitals, colleges and charities must comply after a year’s phase-in period.

The wave of protest that followed has clearly taken the White House by surprise. Catholic and Protestant evangelical leaders criticized the decision as infringing on freedom of religion. Some religious liberals have called it politically risky for Obama in a close election year.

“I think this mandate violates our Constitution,” Boehner, a Republican from Butler County, said Thursday. “I think it violates the rights of these religious organizations. And I would hope that the administration would back up and take another look at this.”

White House spokesman Carney said the decision will stand.

That’s unlikely to silence critics. Also joining in disapproval was a group that includes Democratic lawmakers who helped engineer final passage of the health care law. Democrats for Life of America represents anti-abortion lawmakers who provided the margin of victory in Congress.

“Forcing religious institutions to provide insurance coverage for services that are directly in opposition to their moral beliefs is very clearly wrong,” said Kristen Day, its executive director.

The White House defended the decision. Spokesman Carney said the president has no intention of trespassing on religious liberty.

“There was extensive and careful consideration as this policy was developed and a decision was made. And the issue here is we want to be sure women, all women, have access to good health care,” he said.

Asked if there’s a debate within the administration about reconsidering, Carney responded:

“No, there’s not a debate ... the decision has been made, and it was made after careful consideration.”

At issue is a provision of the health care law that requires insurance plans to cover preventive care for women free of charge to the employee. Last year, an advisory panel from the respected Institute of Medicine recommended including birth control on the list, partly because it promotes maternal and child health by allowing women to space their pregnancies.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius agreed, issuing a new federal regulation last summer.

That rule, however, exempted houses of worship and their employees, as well as other institutions whose primary purpose is to promote religious belief. Churches, synagogues, mosques and other places would not be required to cover contraceptives, it specified. Neither would religious organizations whose purpose is to promote belief, and that primarily employ and serve people of the same creed.

It was a different story for religious-affiliated hospitals, colleges and social agencies that serve the public broadly.

Last Sunday, Catholic bishops in more than 140 dioceses issued statements denouncing the decision that were read at each weekend Mass.

“We cannot — we will not — comply with this unjust law,” Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr said. His 19-county archdiocese includes western Ohio up through Lima.

The head of the Catholic Health Association, a hospital trade group that supported Obama’s health care law, said she was “stunned” by the administration’s decision.

“It’s not the issue of contraception, but religious freedom,” said Sister Carol Keehan. “It’s not about preventing women from buying anything themselves, but telling the church what it has to buy, and the potential for that to go further.”

Share this article