Obama has made the right move by requiring health insurance companies to pay for contraception coverage for religiously opposed institutions, while maintaining his previous policy to force all other employers to offer free contraception.
The policy in its original form got a 61 percent approval rating according to a Fox News Poll.
The White House’s decision to react quickly and in a pluralistic way shows Obama’s ability to compromise. As Obama said in an interview for PBS Hour, he is aware that he can’t please everyone.
After the proposed plan required Catholic hospitals to have to pay for contraception coverage for their employees, conservative religious officials reacted negatively. They thought the move represented a “bureaucratic assault on religious freedom” as Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickenson reported.
There is still some condemnation, though, from Catholic leaders who say that this government coercion of religious institutions is wrong in refusing to consider “religious insurers, self-insuring religious employers, religious for-profit employers and secular nonprofit employers.”
As Fox News points out, the free contraceptive policy is not to simply prevent babies but, rather, to address many other female health conditions that contraceptives help with.
As New York Times writer Jackie Calmes points out, the reality is that many women, regardless of Roman Catholics’ view of contraception, have used contraception methods.
Republicans, including Sarah Palin, question the government’s self-imposed right to “tell us what we must consume, what we must purchase, what we must provide our employees.”
Female progressives have every reason to pay attention to this policy and its message. The policy shows Obama’s attention to individual rights and a priority towards women’s health.
Chairman of the House Budget Committee and Republican Representative Paul D. Ryan has made his objections clear, saying in an interview for ABC’s “Meet the Press” that House
Republicans have enough votes to pass legislation to exempt “any insurance provider or purchaser” from offering contraception coverage.
The Church’s reaction demonstrated that if women want the right to control their body, they have to step it up in this election. This policy also allowed Obama to focus on the gap between social conservatives and GOP candidate Mitt Romney.
It shows that Obama is striving to make an effort in individual rights and creating a pluralistic society.
Nayeli Carillo is a senior journalism major and a contributing writer for the Daily 49er.
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