President Barack Obama is groping for a solution to an increasingly ugly election-year controversy over birth control coverage. And Republicans are doing everything in their power to make it as difficult as possible for the White House.
Escalating the fight, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) made a rare floor speech Wednesday afternoon vowing to overturn a new administration rule that requires faith-based employers to provide workers free contraceptive coverage.
“If the president does not reverse the [administration’s] attack on religious freedom, then the Congress, acting on behalf of the American people and the Constitution we are sworn to uphold and defend, must,” Boehner said.
Polls show the birth control rule is popular, even among Catholics — but the backlash within Washington has been fierce, and the actions of the president’s top advisers Tuesday showed just how worried they are about it.
A remark from Obama’s senior campaign strategist David Axelrod that the White House might be open to a compromise marked an unexpected turn in the fight and set off a Washington guessing game about the administration’s intentions.
White House officials insisted their position hasn’t changed, but Axelrod’s comments quickly became a Rorschach test for advocates on both sides of a dispute stoked by Republican presidential candidates, liberal and conservative Catholics, cable TV pundits and religious-liberty advocates.
The problem illustrates the complexities of Obama’s election-year calculus: Walk back the decision, and enrage women voters, a group he must woo to win reelection. Stick to it, and risk inflaming Catholics, a critical swing bloc that he can’t afford to lose too badly.
