President Obama’s birth control accommodation for religious nonprofits is splintering the GOP tent, with Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins praising it as a good move.
The Portland Press Herald’s Jonathan Riskind reports:
But Obama’s revised rule appears to have won over Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine. Both had called for changes to the original rule despite their support in the past for a bill with a similar objective.
“It appears that changes have been made that provide women’s health services without compelling Catholic organizations in particular to violate the beliefs and tenets of their faith,” Snowe said in a statement. “According to the Catholic Health Association, the administration ‘responded to the issues [they] identified that needed to be fixed,’ which is what I urged the president to do in addressing this situation.
“While I will carefully review the details of the president’s revised proposal, it appears to be a step in the right direction,” Collins said in a statement. “The administration’s original plan was deeply flawed and clearly would have posed a threat to religious freedom. It presented the Catholic Church with its wide-ranging social, educational, and health care services, and many other faith-based organizations, with an impossible choice between violating their religious beliefs or violating federal regulations. The administration has finally listened to the concerns raised by many and appears to be seeking to avoid the threat to religious liberties posed by its original plan.”
House and Senate Republican leaders say the shift is not good enough and intend to move forward with legislation to repeal the rule entirely. TPM reported earlier that the GOP was ripe for splits on the issue, given members’ prior support for contraception mandate, and that moderate Republicans are wary of a culture war over contraception.
(h/t Igor Volsky)
