Boehner: Feds should back off birth control mandate
Employers must cover contraceptives despite religious beliefs.
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration scrambled Thursday to contain a growing electionyear 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 religiousaffiliated 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.