WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing a wave of lawsuits over what government can tell religious groups to do, the Obama administration on Friday proposed a compromise for faith-based nonprofits that object to covering birth control in their employee health plans.
Some of the lawsuits appear headed for the Supreme Court, threatening another divisive legal battle over President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law, which requires most employers to cover birth control free of charge to female workers as a preventive service. The law exempted churches and other houses of worship, but religious charities, universities, hospitals and even some for-profit businesses have objected.
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This will be an interesting test for employers who are affliated with organized religion. They have been claiming "It's against our conscience, because we have to pay." This deal makes it even clearer that they are _not_ going to pay. If they don't accept, it will be clear that they are against it because they feel they have the right to control women.
Wait a minute, during the presidential election, any compromise to the HHS mandate was an all out WAR ON WOMAN!!! Poor Sandra Fluke who had a household income of $150K could not afford her contraception and was given a prime time spot at the DNC. Elizabeth Warren and Barack Obama said any accommodation would be a major step backward in advertisement after advertisement during the campaigns.
Three weeks after Obama's inauguration and now he is viewed as a "compromiser" by proposing the same postion that both Mitt Romney and Scott Brown suggested. Let me guess, they will extend Title X which was regularly proposed to pay for it.
The Boston Globe will be supportive of this change, of course, because this emotional wedge issue is no longer helpful in getting voters distracted from focusing on jobs, the economy and the national debt during the election.