Monday, November 21, 2011

Liberal Double Standards on Contraception

Several media outlets reported over the weekend that White House officials participated in a conference call with pro-choice groups late last week regarding the status of contraceptive coverage mandates related to Obamacare.  The call came amidst rumors that the Administration may expand conscience exemptions to the contraception mandate, so that Catholic hospitals and other faith-based institutions may continue to offer health insurance coverage not in conflict with their religious beliefs.

Two claims in these articles merit rebuttal.  The first, in the New York Times, is the White House’s claim that including contraceptive coverage in a package of mandatory women’s services was “based on science.”  Unfortunately for the White House, Administration officials themselves undermined this assertion back in February, as quoted in another Times piece:

Administration officials said they expected the list [of required benefits] to include contraception and family planning because a large body of scientific evidence showed the effectiveness of those services.  But the officials said they preferred to have the panel of independent experts make the initial recommendations so the public would see them as based on science, not politics.

In other words, the Administration decided back in February to require coverage of contraceptive services, and merely used the public process to provide political cover to a decision that had already been made by Administration officials.

The second was an allegation by Rep. Nita Lowey in a Huffington Post article stating that the Administration was playing politics by considering an expansion of the conscience exemption.  Unfortunately, this Administration has been playing politics all along – as noted above, the process leading to the conscience regulations appears to have been rigged well in advance to achieve an outcome favorable to the President’s liberal supporters.  Additionally, the Administration recently rejected renewing a human trafficking grant previously awarded to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the Washington Post explained why:  “Senior political appointees at HHS awarded the new grants to the bishops’ competitors despite a recommendation from career staffers that the bishops be funded based on scores by an independent review board.”

Given these developments, some have written that “a part of [the Obama] Administration is at war with Catholic leaders and Catholic belief.”  Just as relevant is whether or not the Administration that claimed to end the “war on science” has on two separate occasions related to contraceptive issues manipulated the process, and/or overridden the recommendations of non-partisan experts, to achieve political victories for its liberal allies.