President Barack Obama wasn’t looking for another fight with religious groups when the administration attempted Friday to clarify its birth control mandate.
But he got one anyway.
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The change was meant to help quell a wave of lawsuits by providing guidance on which employers are exempt and how exactly they would meet the mandate without violating their conscience, according to close observers of the process.
To leaders of some religious and conservative groups challenging the policy, though, it was the latest example of an administration that’s struggled to relate to them just not getting it.
The Faith & Freedom Coalition called it “window dressing and more of the same.” The Catholic Association tagged it “just another accounting gimmick.” The Judicial Crisis Network described it as “no solution at all.”
“Today’s proposed rule does nothing to protect the religious freedom of millions of Americans,” said Kyle Duncan, general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which has helped employers bring lawsuits against the administration. “There would have been an easy way to resolve this — expanding the exemption — but the proposed rule expressly rejects that option.”
