The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Local reaction mixed on Obama’s switch on birth control provision

Water rescue occuring at Caesar Creek Lake
New 17 min. ago
Out-of-state shoppers arrested in clothing theft
10:14 a.m.
Fairfield gas station robbed at gun point
10:02 a.m.
AK reassigns five execs
8:56 a.m.
Ohio education reform plan stalls
5/25/12
> More headlines

By Tom Beyerlein and Ted Cox, Staff Writers 10:20 PM Friday, February 10, 2012

President Barack Obama on Friday backed off a requirement that religious organizations provide birth-control insurance for workers.

Instead, he announced that if such institutions object to offering the coverage, insurance companies now will be required to provide it without cost. The rule goes into effect in August.

The policy change received a lukewarm welcome locally, with many Catholic organizations - one of which is among the state’s largest employers - waiting for more details before agreeing the federal health care edict wouldn’t violate religious freedoms.

“We understand there are people of good will on all sides of this debate,” said Mike Boehmer, spokesman for Catholic Health Partners, the parent organization of Mercy Hospital Fairfield.

CHP is the fourth largest employer in Ohio and has more than 1,300 employees at Mercy Fairfield.

“We appreciate that there are efforts being made to resolve the issues,” Boehmer added. “In the coming days and weeks, we’re looking forward to reviewing further specific information provided by the administration and to continued guidance from the bishops.”

CHP doesn’t offer its employees any birth-control coverage in its insurance, Boehmer said, but it hasn’t hurt its effort to recruit workers.

“In fact, 82 percent of our employees are female,” he added.

Xavier University spokesperson Laurel Bauer said the school “is still studying the language of President Obama’s compromise.”

On the other side of the debate, the organizations Progress Ohio, Know Your Care, Planned Parenthood and other supporters of the administration’s Affordable Care Act held a rally Friday at House Speaker John Boehner’s West Chester Twp. office.

“We applaud a compromise that guarantees women’s access to full health coverage and contraception,” said Progress Ohio’s David Little, who helped organize the group of about 10. “The goal would not be to force any religious institution to violate their beliefs or religious tenets. But at the same time, the public health of America’s women - 98 percent of whom during their lifetime have utilized birth control - should be covered by insurance.”

Planned Parenthood and the Catholic Health Association were among those endorsing the president’s modification, while insurance companies were raising questions about the requirement that they offer free services.

Boehner had said he believed the original measure violates First Amendment rights. A spokeswoman for his office said he was working on a response to the compromise. But it didn’t come by late Friday night.

Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr was among more than 100 bishops nationwide who late last month signed similarly worded letters condemning the initial regulations and pledging not to comply with them. His spokesman, Dan Andriacco, said that “it’s too early to make any comment” about Friday’s modification.

“We’re all studying it,” he said. “Our moral theologians will look at it and we’ll certainly have something to say about this later.”

While the rule never applied to churches, Andriacco said it could have applied to parish schools and Catholic high schools, which are self-insured by the archdiocese in a plan administered by Anthem. He said the plan covers no contraceptive measures except for birth-control pills prescribed for medical reasons other than contraception.

Share this article