After weeks of criticism from religious groups, President Barack Obama has backed down from a policy for contraception coverage, but even then, some religious organizations, including the Archdiocese of Miami, are unhappy.
Obama backpedaled a bit, tweaking his policy that said religious institutions must provide birth control to female employees, even if it violates their religious beliefs. The policy has brought the president an avalanche of criticism because it forces religious institutions that oppose abortion to offer birth control to female employees.
“Religious organizations won’t have to pay for these services, and no religious institution will have to provide these services directly,” Obama said.
The president is trying to find a middle ground in a dispute that may not have one. Many Catholic women, among others, use birth control, often offered by their employers’ insurance plans. But the Catholic Church is totally against it.
The president said he gets it.
"If a woman’s employer is a charity or a hospital that has a religious objection to providing contraceptive services as part of their health plan, the insurance company – not the hospital, not the charity – will be required to reach out and offer the woman contraceptive care free of charge," he said.
Obama said no religious institution will have to pay directly for contraceptive services, but what if the institution in question is self-insured, like the Archdiocese of Miami?
“It does not work for the Archdiocese because our insurance company is sitting in this building,” said Archdiocese spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta. “We are self-insured. We are our own mini-insurance company, if you will. So the Archbishop is not going to send a memo down to the first floor and say, ‘Pay for this.’ It’s just not going to happen.”
A White House source said the administration is ready to meet with self-insured Catholic institutions to find a solution.
“We will take any and every opportunity to meet with the president and his White House advisors to make this work for the Catholic Church here in the United States,” Agosta said.
Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski released a statement in response to Obama on Friday, saying, “It is still not clear whether the proposed ‘compromise’ offered today is acceptable to the bishops and other Catholic leaders. The devil, as they say, is in the details – and we await more information as to the details.”
Click here to read the archbishop’s full statement.
The revamped policy is still a work in progress. Sen. Marco Rubio said what Obama did today is “good,” but Rubio said the Obama administration’s rules still threaten to take away constitutional rights.