OK, so I see there has been a compromise: religious institutions will not be required to carry insurance, but the insurance plans will have to offer the option for free on request.
If this is an end point of negotiations, and not just the first of a series of climb-downs, I'm OK with that, though the scrapper in me wishes that someone would call the US Conference of Bishops the "Parsonage of Pedophile Protectors."
However, I must take issue with something what Obama said during his announcement.
Specifically, I object to his casting contraception as an exclusively female issue.
Men have something to do with women getting pregnant, (at least that's what my wife tells me), the male pill is likely just a few years away, and a vasectomy is just as effective, cheaper, and safer (it's done under a local) as tubal ligation.
Contraception and access to contraception is not a women's issue, it's a human issue, and we diminish the importance of the issue treating it as an exclusively female issue.
(Excerpts of the statement, with my emphasis, after the fold):
As part of the health care reform law that I signed last year, all insurance plans are required to cover preventive care at no cost. That means free check-ups, free mammograms, immunizations and other basic services. We fought for this because it saves lives and it saves money –- for families, for businesses, for government, for everybody. That’s because it’s a lot cheaper to prevent an illness than to treat one.
We also accepted a recommendation from the experts at the Institute of Medicine that when it comes to women, preventive care should include coverage of contraceptive services such as birth control. In addition to family planning, doctors often prescribe contraception as a way to reduce the risks of ovarian and other cancers, and treat a variety of different ailments. And we know that the overall cost of health care is lower when women have access to contraceptive services.
Nearly 99 percent of all women have relied on contraception at some point in their lives –- 99 percent. And yet, more than half of all women between the ages of 18 and 34 have struggled to afford it. So for all these reasons, we decided to follow the judgment of the nation’s leading medical experts and make sure that free preventive care includes access to free contraceptive care.
…..
And that’s why, from the very beginning of this process, I spoke directly to various Catholic officials, and I promised that before finalizing the rule as it applied to them, we would spend the next year working with institutions like Catholic hospitals and Catholic universities to find an equitable solution that protects religious liberty and ensures that every woman has access to the care that she needs.
……
Today, we've reached a decision on how to move forward. Under the rule, women will still have access to free preventive care that includes contraceptive services -– no matter where they work. So that core principle remains. But 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, without co-pays and without hassles.
The result will be that religious organizations won’t have to pay for these services, and no religious institution will have to provide these services directly. Let me repeat: These employers will not have to pay for, or provide, contraceptive services. But women who work at these institutions will have access to free contraceptive services, just like other women, and they'll no longer have to pay hundreds of dollars a year that could go towards paying the rent or buying groceries.
