White House to Announce Adjustment to Birth-Control Rule
Seeking to allay the concerns of Catholic leaders, the White House is planning to adjust its health care rule requiring religious employers to provide women access to contraception, a senior administration official said Friday.
Women will be guaranteed coverage for contraceptive services, but would have to seek the coverage directly from their insurance companies if their employers object to birth control on religious grounds.
Republicans are vowing to reverse President Barack Obama’s new policy on birth control, blasting the rule that religious schools and hospitals must provide contraceptive coverage for their employees as an attack on religious freedom. (Feb. 8)
Similar compromises are in place in Hawaii and several other states, but the White House had not included one when it proposed the health-care law requiring contraceptive coverage for all women. After a firestorm of opposition from Catholic church officials and other groups, the Obama administration said it would seek to modify its position.
President Obama is scheduled to announce the change Friday during an appearance before reporters in the White House at 12:15 p.m. He is trying to head off a growing political problem, after his decision Jan. 20 to grant only a narrower exemption to the health-care rule.
The decision to offer a new accommodation was first reported by ABC News.
The current rule, proposed last summer and confirmed last month as part of Obama’s health-care overhaul law, requires employers to provide female employees the full range of contraceptive coverage, including birth control, the “morning-after pill” and sterilization services.
The measure exempts churches but covers religiously affiliated schools, charities, colleges and hospitals, meaning that many Catholic-run institutions would have to offer insurance plans that church leaders say violate their teachings.