The Sunshine Empire

I’m having a difficult time trying to fashion a coherent point regarding the new Catholic-Contraception uproar with the White House. I was raised in the Catholic faith and attended Catholic school until the fifth grade. I also have no issue with contraception availability as a way to stem the growth of unwanted children. The timing of this issue of the Obama administration finalizing a regulation that requires Catholic organizations to provide contraception as part of their health plans with no deductible is what I wonder about.

The requirement that is at issue has been a part of codified law since 2009′s Affordable Care act. What has changed since then was the Obama administration finalized the rule on January 20th of this year. The right as a whole and the quartet of GOP presidential hopefuls specifically have seized upon this rule finalization as if it was a sudden and specific reversal on the part of Obama specifically. After the 9th circuit’s declaration of Prop 8 as unconstitutional, the GOP and conservatives have begun to paint a narrative of Barack Obama as morally unacceptable to middle America. This is in large part because the economy has shown marked improvement, deflating a major attack point for the GOP. President Obama is now polling ahead of his challengers in places like Virginia again. If this was put forward by the administration purposefully there could only be two reasons for such. First it would be a play to his base. For all the characterization of the president by the right as someone hell bent for leather to force contraception into the hands of every woman in America, they forget his refusal to expand availability of the so called “Morning After Pill” last year. Also after a year and a half of the right’s full court press on abortion funding and providers, the move could be seen as a secret shot back from the progressive left. There is faction of the left that views Obama as no better than a center right Republican. This would appeal to them.

In the end I would imagine the Obama administration will find some way to exempt certain Catholic organizations from the contraception ruling in some way that would not seem like backing down from a fight. I would also be shocked if the issue is even an afterthought by the time we get to July. We’ll have all new pointless issues to vex upon then.

Related posts:

1. Remember Folks, Religious Liberty Only Counts If You’re Christian
2. Climbing back into politics
3. Was There A Point To SCOTUS Hearing Yesterday?
4. On Conventions In American Politics
5. When Spending Takes A Back Seat To Politics