I think it’s a good compromise. Our country was founded on freedom of religion and forcing a religion to do something against their beliefs is wrong. Iyou’re working for a religious institution, you are most likely that religion and share their beliefs and wouldn’t use birth control anyway… so I’m not sure what the point was in forcing them to offer it. I personally think not allowing birth control is silly… God told us to be fruitful and multiply… and we have… time to slow down a bit ;)

WOW, Obama has achieved the perfect slight of hand normally seen among the best of magicians! He now not only looks like he “accommodated” religious liberty. He has guaranteed what he has no Constitutional authority to guarantee, BTW, “free” contraception, etc… that will be funded 100% by the American Taxpayer who is 25% Catholic!! This is not an accommodation! This is smoke and mirrors to obfuscate his tyrannical pursuit of the “perfect” society. Perfection, that is, defined and designed by him! Is that really what anybody wants? Are you really willing to extend that kind of power to any one single President? What happens when a Republican President gets elected after Obama has solidified, codified this kind of power in the office of the Presidency? What then? Is this what you really want out there People? This is all about the Constitution!! And how Obama is OBLITERATING it!!

Prenatal care and then subsequent coverage for those children cost me as well. I’d rather pay for the birth control. The way I see it is, I’ll pay for the care wither through my insurance premiums or through my tax dollars. Birth control is much cheaper.

I have to share the cost for all my prescriptions through my health insurance. Why is contraception so special that the President hand pick this one to be free?

Women who want to use contraception are going to use it regardless of whether or not their heath insurance picks up the tab. A month’s supply of birth control pills or a box of condoms cost less than a single pizza and six-pack. The question is whose responsibility that minimal cost should be- the user or someone else? Given that pregnancy is not a disease and use of contraception for the purposes of family planning is medically unnecessary, I do not believe it should be mandated coverage.

I’m curious. How long do you suppose a dollar remains Catholic after a religious employer uses it to pay others and they use it to pay others, etc? At some point, some might rightfully regard that dollar as theirs to do with as they will–without regard to the religious views of others who once had it in their hands a transaction or two earlier.

We don’t have Little Caesar’s where I live. A large pizza at the restaurant down my street costs $15.99 and a 6 pack of beer costs $7-10 depending on the brand. A woman can definitely get generic birth control pills for less than that total cost. Maybe not a specific brand name but that’s like me whining I cannot afford some expensive microbrew and have to settle for drinking Bud Light. It serves the purpose even if it might not be my ideal preference.

CW: it’s not that these employees are choosing between pizza and pills, it’s that they’d be paying into a health insurance policy that wouldnt allow them access through that policy to a medication they use and want–a basic medication that is used by the majority of American women. Your employer should not be allowed to tell you which medicines you can take. Gluttony is a sin, should catholic institutions be able to opt out of offering diabetes medicines or medicine for heart disease to their employees? This is not–and has never been–about religious freedom, it’s about women’s health care rights and the institutions that wish to exert control over women.

I found a U.S. News & World Report article that said in 2008, generic birth control pills cost $9/month. So even with inflation, it’s still far less than what I would pay for a single pizza and six-pack (around $23-26 total).

CW: well, I’m sure your insurance covers the rhythm method…so, that seems like they cover natropathy. As far as real medicine goes, women should have access to real birth control through their health insurance. Your obsession with pizza is vexing.

Thank you for that.
Now I know it’s far less expensive to cover than prenatal care, delivery and 123-26 years of subsequent health care ;-)
I’m willing to bitch louder and push harder now that I know

CW: if you are genuinely concerned about health care premiums and access to care, you should engage in the larger health care conversation that is going on in this country instead of proclaiming that alls fair in love and pizza and blah blah blah “but me”–it’s not fair and that’s the point and this particular issue of catholic institutions wanting to opt out of offering birth control through their health plan is especially unfair (and, I might add, something that GW Bush was against and Was able to get that on the books with out a “compromise”). While this compromise is fine, I am annoyed that a vocal, conservative minority can get such attention. 99 percent of women have used birth control in their lifetime (Michelle Duggar included). It’s basic normal care and I dislike that there needs to be “compromises” over it. Don’t like it, don’t use it… But, to echo a familiar statement in current politics: I am the 99%.