President Obama has abandoned his stand that religious organisations must pay for birth control for workers.
Seeking to end the election-year furore, particularly from the Catholic Church, Obama’s compromise meant women would still get free birth control; Obama demanding that insurance companies step in and provide the coverage.
Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan of New York initially called Obama’s new approach a good first step, but reserved any significant comment until the statement could be studied in full.
“We hope to work with the administration to guarantee that Americans’ consciences and our religious freedom are not harmed by these regulations,” Archbishop Dolan said.
Later, and as part of the bishops’ conference, Dolan was more more skeptical.
“Today’s proposal continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions, and to threaten government coercion of religious people and groups to violate their most deeply held convictions,” the bishops’ said.
The bishops’ are undertaking to continue to press for the greatest conscience protection they can secure.
Before the bishops released their second statement, leaders of two of the largest Catholic employers in the country – the Catholic Health Association and Catholic Charities USA – had released their own statements indicating that they were satisfied with the Obama administration’s “compromise” proposal.
“This compromise enables Catholic Charities USA to not only continue to provide access to quality healthcare to its 70,000 employees and families across the country of many different faiths and backgrounds, but also guarantees the continued delivery of vital services to the more than 10 million people living in need across the country,” said Father Larry Snyder, the president of Catholic Charities USA.
The controversy over contraception and religious liberty was overshadowing President Obama’s election-year vision for a second term, threatening to alienate key voters and giving ammunition to the Republicans.
Republicans hoping to oust Obama from the White House were conceding nothing.
Though not mentioning the birth control issue, Newt Gingrich assailed the president’s views of religious rights and said “I frankly don’t care what deal he tries to cut. … If he wins re-election, he will wage war on the Catholic Church the morning after he’s re-elected.”
Mitt Romney, the front-runner in the campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, said the decision didn’t change anything.
“Today he did the classic Obama retreat, all right, and what I mean by that is it wasn’t a retreat at all. It’s another deception,” Romney said while campaigning in Portland, Maine.
In acknowledging he wanted an end to the controversy, Obama said he said he spoke as a Christian who cherishes religious freedom and as a president unwilling to give up on free contraceptive care.