Comments about ‘Q&A: Obama and the birth control controversy’

Over half of Americans supported the original Obama administration proposal along with 52% of Catholics. 28 states already had something similar in place including Romney's Massachusetts.

Insurance companies may not have much of a cost issue to pass along, increased birth control availability leads to fewer pregnancies (western european nations like the netherlands have the lowest rates of abortion and the lowest birth rates so by definition they have the lowest pregnancy rates which makes it cheaper for insurers with regards to maternity coverage).

Over half of Americans may have thought they supported Obamacare, however if truth be told, they didn't know what they were supporting. The ruling by the Secretary of HHS wasn't in the actual wording of the bill. Rather the bill had many provisions wherein the Secretary of HHS would make a ruling LATER and it would have the effect of law. So the percentages of who supported this bill aren't that relevant in this discussion.

Regarding the "28 states have similar mandates" claim, it is overdrawn. None of the 28 states require contraception coverage in self-insured and ERISA plans. Thus the federal law is much more comprehensive in nature.

Furthermore, Obama's change on Friday did nothing to solve this. All he did was move it from religious institutions to religious insurance companies - but failed to resolve the actual issue: government interference in religion, which clearly is a violation of the Establishment Clause.