Comments about ‘White House didn't foresee birth control backlash’

This is why our constitution did not give the president powers to write the laws of the country like a common dictator. Only the legislators have the authority to write and make our laws. One man legislation is dictatorial and usually fraught with errors and unconstitutional actions.

My biggest worry about why our congressmen are not trying to stop Obama and his one man legislation is this is the type of government they want where a dictator is the law. If our legislators try and stop him then it will diminish others from having this power over the people and the constitution. In effect, the presidential powers are a government overwriting the constitution to best suit one man or group of men. A two constitution government is what Obama has created, the dictatorial presidential government that overpowers the constitutional government created by the designers of this country.

I imagine he's gotten the message. Religious people put a great deal of energy into determining who has sex, and why.

I can't believe this title. They for sure saw this coming. They met with the Catholic hierarchy in November 2011 after 3-4 months of deciding. The President wants to make headway with his campaign and nothing he does is not without much though and deliberation. He is a Constitutional Lawyer and professor. He definitely knows the impact of this type of situation. Roe vs Wade or other Supreme Court decisions he has studied for years. He is not completely a smart man as he politicizes everything, especially in an election year. He was able to take Hilliary Clinton, not only the ex-First Lady but one of the smartest and most political women and Democrat in this country. He is not a novice after listening to Jeremiah Wright's teachings for 20 years. Those teachings must not have been about true religion but about social issues they both espouse. Our present First Lady that she was proud for the first time in America when her husband was elected. Our country has defended our rights for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Now we will all pay for this decision with a devaluing of some's individual's rights and take our money through insurance companies to pay for this type of action. Where have we stooped to. How low can this President go with his Executive and Agency's decisions. We need a Congress that has backbone and will put their courage up in the forefront, even in Utah. Our liberties go before the fall and it is not just an economic fall but our fall of freedoms that put us in bondage to a government and others that will strike at those beliefs.

If an employee of a Catholic organization wants receives free birth control from her insurance, that still means the employer and the each member of that employer's health plan are paying for that woman's birth control. You see, an insurance doesn't provide anything for free; everything the insurance provides, is paid for in member premiums-even if the premium is coming from another person or group. If contraceptives are "free", you can expect the insurance or health plan administrator adjust premiums for the entire group so that everyone shares in the cost.

This White House is so out of touch with real Americans, that's why it was surprised.

Nothing else is free with health insurance -- why should birth control be? The whole idea is wasteful.

At least Obamacare will die next January.

@My2Cents - couldn't agree more

@JWB - Nothing will happen to turn around anything while Harry Ried is in charge of the Senate. He tables everything he disagrees with. He hasn't even let a budget go to the floor for three years, and he just rejected doing it for the fourth.

Overall, I think everything Obama does, he calculates primarily how it will affect his polls. We're talking about someone who thinks he's one of the top five Presidents in history based on "what he accomplished," which includes ObamaCare with this birth control and abortion mandate. He won't back down.

Unfortunately in my opinion this was clearly an over-reach of the mandate. No institution should be forced to provide services that are against its beleifs. If you don't like the package, work somewhere else. If you work for a religous based organization, expectations should be that its benefits would match its core values. It is absolutely unreasonable to expect to works somewhere and expect to receive compensation (aka benedtits) that are not in harmoney with the groups charter.

Obama's administration gampled here. They did the math. And they miscalcuated. This isn't about contraception, this is about mandating a religous organization operate in a secular manner, which they should never have to do, even if they do benefit the public at large, such as Catholic Charities does.

As those of you know who have read my comments before, I will defend the administration against false claims, but in this case, the administraion gaffed, and gaffed big.

Many Catholic organizations are self-insured. That is, they don't use health insurers. Instead, they provide their own health insurance coverage for their employees.

Once those organizations understand exactly what Obama and his people are doing, they won't be so optimistic about the so-called change.

Clearly, we haven't heard the end of this.

...yet another example of his poor judgement, inexperience, lack of leadership skill... it's time to send him back to Chicago.

Lacks understanding.of the Constitution.

"So why wasn't this approach taken in the first place?"

He learned a lesson from previous fights and that is "republicans oppose everything". Whenever he started in the middle Republicans called it liberal so it's about time he learned to start with something farther to the left so that when he compromised it'd move to the middle, not something rightward leaning that still gets no conservative votes.

What a misleading headline. The article points out that the White House received various letters on the matter and even held meetings with Catholic groups and officials. I would suggest that they clearly understood the opposition to this measure.

The disregard shown to the raised concerns suggests that they simply didn't care about what was being said. The only reason the White House cares now is that it realizes that its indifference is harming Obama's election prospects.

Harming Obama's election prospects... 52% of Catholics supported the pre-compromise version of Obama's policy on this.

I do have to love the comments that all this s driven by politics. Well duh. Can you name anybody who is in Washington that doesn't pander to their constituents? This is why it is called politics.

Charisma and teleprompter speeches don't always carry the day when it comes to matters of conscience.

What if the birth control isnt being prescribed to prevent a pregnancy? Many woman use it to lessen the painful symptoms of the menstrual cycle each month. Without the use of birth control some woman find life debilitating and quite painful a week of their live's each month. Do we allow these woman to suffer and be judged for using a drug that is also used to prevent a pregnancy? I truly feel sorry for any woman who needs birth control for non pregnancy related purposes and is still denied by there religeous institution's insurance.

As a former Health Insurance Technician seen the disaster of the health insurance industry I have experience in this area. This isn't a "one man legislation" as someone on this blog stated. This is a well thought out attempt for people to receive the care they need. Also, I am a woman who has needed birth control for my health as I struggled with miscarriages and reproductive issues. It doesn't seem that some recognize that it can be essential to a women's health and only want to see it as a religious issue. If someone has a religious issue against birth control, they can certainly choose to not use it. Also, if, (hard to believe in the 21st century) some religions choose to still say it's against their beliefs, they can certainly tell their followers that, but they can't force them to comply. And, statistics show that more than half of the women in those religions do or have used it. Someone also said "Obamacare will be gone next January"....I need to inform you, NOT SO. We already have it up and going and it's helping many already. And soon it will help many like myself and my daughters that have endured being denied for "pre-existing" conditions. You are being mis-informed ,

@Kimber: there are numerous insurance plans that have birth control in them. No one is stopping you from getting the benefits you desire in the insurance plan of your choice. No one is forcing you to buy insurance through your company. Go buy one that has what you need in it.

You have it backwards regarding the forcing and complying. The government has no Constitutional authority to force an insurance company to do what Obama is doing.

Get it yet???

Regardless of what side of this issue you are on, one of the biggest takeaways that should run parallel to this discussion is that our current president somehow believes that by having contraception provided to workers by "the insurers" he actually believes this will be "free". I worry that Obama continues to develop this myth in the minds of the average American citizen that the things handed out to them really are "free". No, these are not free, they do have a cost and that cost, sooner or later circles back to all of us. Insurers will now need to raise premiums to all their customers, including religious institutions to pay for this "free" coverage. Just because the president says it will be "free" the simple economics demand that it will not be free, not now, not later, not ever. We as a country will all pay for the many "freebies" our government is handing out. In short, beware of the word "free".

Why can we not get the truth that insurance is not free. It is, was and always will be a method of spreading the risk and cost to as many people as possible to keep the actual personal cost down.

No matter how the POTUS spins it, the cost of any and all coverage will always come back to each of us.

When an employer contracts, as an incentive or perk, to pay for part of a health insurance premium for employees, it is still not free. That cost to the employer is a business expense and will be calculated and returned to the consumer in the form of cost of goods or services rendered.

If nothing else, Obamacare will be inflationary, if not outright dsbilitating to business and economic growth. Countersay the economics all you want, but it will not change the truth. While benefits are a good thing, they are never, never free.

Recently I asked a provider what my bill was. They replied, "Your co-pay is $20.00." "No," I said, "What was the cost of service?" It took four tries for her to tell me thay had billed the insurer $245.00. It's not free.