Obama contraception ‘accommodation’ still imposes state mandate on church

By Neil Munro - The Daily Caller Published: 12:05 PM 02/10/2012

White House officials say they to plan to bypass church opposition to a contraceptive mandate in the president’s health care overhaul by directing insurance companies to hand out free birth control services to employees of religious institutions.
“We think this is a very common-sense solution. … All women will have access to these very, very important contraceptive services, and those employers that have religious objections don’t have to pay for it,” a White House official told reporters in a phone call. (RELATED VIDEO: Congressman says Obama ‘duped’ American people)
However, neither of the officials, and none of the reporters, raised the issue of whether the mandate is a back-door method of regulating church practices, a possible violation the First Amendment’s prohibition against state regulation of churches.
President Barack Obama is slated to appear at 12:15 p.m. to promote the maneuver, which officials described as an accommodation to religious groups that oppose contraception.
White House officials are spinning the controversy as an effort by the Catholic church to deny contraceptive services to women.
That’s a campaign-trail argument, because it offers free services to young women while portraying the Catholic church as an obstacle to progressives.
However, the controversy has grown rapidly because critics say the core issue is not contraception or even abortion-related drugs, but an ambitious effort by Obama and fellow progressives to use the power of the state to subordinate religious groups to progressives’ political priorities.