Editorial: The right compromise from Obama
President Barack Obama, accompanied by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, announces the revamp of his contraception policy requiring religious institutions to fully pay for birth control, Friday, Feb. 10, 2012, in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. Credit: AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Singed by the firestorm of criticism that greeted a mandate that church-affiliated institutions provide contraceptive coverage for their employees, President Barack Obama did the right thing Friday. He backed off.
In an appropriate accommodation for the Catholic Church, religious employers, such as Catholic hospitals, universities, charities and social service agencies, will not be required to provide free birth control after all. The insurance companies that cover those employees will be required to do it instead, without imposing additional costs on the employers or out-of-pocket costs on workers.
Churches themselves will continue to be completely exempt from the contraceptive mandate.
That's a pragmatic solution that both respects religious liberty and ensures affordable access to contraceptives for people whose employers have moral objections to birth control.
Paying for birth control is a struggle for half of all American women between the ages of 18 and 34, but White House officials said the benefit will be "cost neutral" for insurance companies. Spending for birth control will be offset by less spending for other health care, such as prenatal services.
The federal government has a legitimate interest in promoting public health and controlling health care costs. That's why the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires private health plans to provide free preventive care such as mammograms and colonoscopies. And that's why it's reasonable for the administration to seek almost universal access to birth control.
But Obama could have spared himself an awful lot of grief if the compromise he announced Friday had been the administration's policy from day one. Unfortunately, at this point, it isn't likely to end the partisan, political uproar that has raged over the issue.
Obama bungled this. His critics, particularly the men vying for the Republican presidential nomination, may find the opportunity to batter him for that too tempting to resist.
But Friday's compromise should put the legitimate dispute over contraceptives and religious liberty to rest.
