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The Obama administration spent the weekend defending its decision to exempt some religious employers from providing coverage for birth control against attacks from its base and from conservatives. Republicans say the change doesn’t go far enough. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said his party wants to see all religious employers exempt from the entire Affordable Care Act. On Friday the President announced he was yielding to pressure from the Catholic church to allow employers with a religious objection to opt-out of providing contraception in healthcare plans. Employers classified as a religious university, charity or hospital are now exempt. Insurance companies are, in Obama’s words, “[r]equired to reach out and offer the woman contraceptive care free of charge, without co-pays and without hassles.” The President said his change of heart came after strong objections by some religious groups and after the issue became a cause célèbre for the GOP, who declared that by upholding existing laws on contraception coverage the President was waging a war on religion. This month the Religion and Politics Tracking poll released survey results showing 58% of Catholics agreed that employer provided health insurance should cover contraception. An earlier poll by Catholics for Choice found that 65% of Catholic voters believed, “hospitals and clinics that take taxpayer dollars should not be allowed to refuse to provide medical procedures or medications based on religious beliefs.” The Catholic Health Association applauded the religious exemption on Friday saying it was “very pleased” that “[t]he framework developed has responded to the issues we identified that needed to be fixed.” The President of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops implied there are more battles on the horizon calling the change, “a first step in the right direction.” The details of how the administration will compel insurers to reach-out to employees and where the money for contraceptives will come from remain unclear.

GUEST: Sarah Posner, senior editor of Religion Dispatches and author of God’s Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters

Read Sarah Posner’s article Liberals Enabled Bishops in Contraception Battles at www.religiondispatches.org.