http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/obamas_catholic_friends_and_enemies_20111123/Any time the Obama administration touches issues related to the Roman Catholic Church, it seems to get itself caught in a rhetorical and moral crossfire that leaves all involved wounded and angry. This is what’s happening in the battle over how contraception should be covered under the new health care law.
Partly because it mishandled the issue at the outset, the Obama team seems destined either to leave supporters in the reproductive rights community irate, or to put the president’s Catholic sympathizers in a much weakened position.
When Congress enacted health care reform, it left to the Department of Health and Human Services the job of determining which preventive services for women insurance plans would be required to include. In August, the administration announced interim rules requiring coverage for contraceptive services without co-pays or deductibles. It provided an exemption from this requirement to “religious employers,” but the exemption was so narrow that it largely left out Catholic hospitals, universities and other church-affiliated institutions.
Although this was only an interim rule, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops immediately denounced it, and Catholics who had supported the health care law were taken by surprise. It’s astonishing that the administration acted without closely consulting Sister Carol Keehan, the brave president of the Catholic Health Association who backed the health care bill despite the opposition it drew from the Bishops Conference. Her support—along with help from other social justice Catholics such as Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa.—was crucial to getting the law through.
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