Obama Walks Back Contraception Mandate ??? Sort Of (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | With the mounting religious fury aimed at the White House over the administration's new contraception mandate, President Barack Obama announced Friday he is walking back the measure -- sort of.

Originally, the controversial new law required all employers -- even those of religious organizations whose faith forbids the action -- to provide health insurance that fully covers and pays for all forms of birth control including sterilization and the contentious morning after pill.

Comparatively speaking, this would be like imposing a new mandate through one of Michelle Obama's war on obesity measures that would require mosques to provide food stamp benefits to those that follow the dietary tenets of the Muslim faith that would cover the purchase of forbidden pork products as a leaner, healthier alternative to permissible beef.

Now, instead of forcing employers with religious objectives to pay for contentious contraception coverage, the employer's insurance provider will be forced to pick up the tab.

Aside from forcing insurance companies to fund the cost of contraception and the new risks of increased premiums and the threat of policy cancellations for employers who can't afford the increase, ABC's Jake Tapper reported Obama will tailor the new version of the national mandate to fit the criteria established in his home-state of Hawaii -- but there's a problem.

The law in Hawaii states employers cannot exclude contraceptive services or supplies from their health policies. It also mandates that if an employer opts out for religious reasons they "must provide enrollees with a list of services they refuses to cover and provide written information describing how the enrollee can access contraceptive services and supplies."

In other words, the new Obamacare mandate will remain as is. But not only will insurance companies be forced to foot the bill, should any religious employer elect to opt out of the part that goes against their faith, they must provide their employees with a list of places where they can commit what the employer considers a mortal sin and their insurance company must cover the expense.

Effectively, this would be like allowing the leaders of the Muslim faith to be exempt from offering the aforementioned hypothetical direct path to pork products but instead require they only give their followers directions to locations such as Sonney's Bar-B-Que.

When the unexpected blowback escalated, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced HHS would add an "additional element" that would allow nonprofit employers who did not provide contraceptive coverage an additional year to get over those religious beliefs, to get in line and "to comply with the new law."

As reported by ABC, Catholic TV network Eternal Word Television Network filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the administration's mandate. It's the third lawsuit to be filed on this matter.

A statement by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, after listing its specific continued grievances, put for a subtle warning by a vow to "continue -- with no less vigor, no less sense of urgency -- our efforts to correct this problem through the other two branches of government."

Simply put, expect more pressure on congress to repeal the measure and more lawsuits until it is done.

Despite the president's new effort, resistance to this endeavor is only just getting started.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120213/pl_ac/10950206_obama_walks_back_contraception_mandate__sort_of

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