White House Says It Won't Back Down on Contraception Rule

(NewsCore) - The White House on Wednesday said it will not back down on its decision to require religious employers to cover contraceptives in employee health plans, though it continued to emphasize that it was sensitive to the concerns of religious leaders.

The new contraception rule, in guidelines issued by the Department of Health and Human Services last month, prompted fierce pushback from some religious institutions and Republican lawmakers, who geared up for a congressional fight over the policy.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) characterized the new rule as an "attack by the federal government on religious freedom in our country" and threatened that if President Barack Obama would not reverse the decision, Congress would.

"In the days ahead, the House will approach this matter fairly and deliberately, through regular order and the appropriate legislative channels," Boehner said in a speech on the House floor Wednesday.

Similarly, a group of Republican senators -- Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) -- made a call for the decision to be overturned.

"This is about whether the government of the United States should have the power to go in and tell a faith-based organization that they have to pay for something that they teach their members shouldn't be done," Rubio told reporters Wednesday.

"I hope that the Senate and the House will act on it as well because the American people are asking us to," he added.

A handful of their counterparts from across the aisle -- including Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) -- hit back, arguing that access to free birth control saves lives and money as they pointed out that such a contraception rule is already the law in 28 states.

"Women in this country are tired of being treated like a political football by Republicans," Boxer told reporters during a press conference.

Greater access to birth control leads to "healthy families, planned pregnancies and healthy babies," she said, while also touting its non-contraceptive medical uses, such as helping some women avoid ovarian cysts. "It's medicine and women deserve their medicine," Boxer said.

White House spokesman Jay Carney affirmed that Obama was committed to giving women access to contraceptives without extra costs. But he reiterated during Wednesday's press briefing that the administration was also seeking to implement the rule "in a way that might allay some of the concerns" of religious leaders.

Houses of worship -- such as churches, synagogues and mosques -- are exempt from the law, but religious-affiliated organizations that employ and serve people outside their faith, such as universities and hospitals, must adhere to the new requirement.

The White House has said that the administration would hold discussions and seek to address concerns from religious employers during the one-year period, beginning this August, before they have to comply with the law, which sparked speculation about a potential compromise.

But regardless of what kind of deal might come out of those talks, Carney said Wednesday the administration ultimately would not walk back from giving women with religious employers access to birth control without a co-pay.

In months-long internal debate at the White House, Vice President Joe Biden and then-White House chief of staff Bill Daley apparently cautioned against the mandate, sources told Bloomberg News.

The officials, who are both Catholic, reportedly warned that it would be seen as a government intrusion on religious institutions and might alienate Catholic voters in battleground states.

Carney would not directly comment on that report, though he said, "broadly speaking, reports that lined some people up on this issue were inaccurate."