Administration Stands Firm On Birth Control Coverage

Despite a furious lobbying effort by the Catholic Church, the Obama administration today said it won't weaken new rules that will require most health insurance plans to offer women prescription contraceptives at no additional out-of-pocket cost.

The final version of the rules will give religious-based hospitals, universities, charities, and other organizations whose primary purpose is not religious, an additional year to come into compliance with the contraceptive requirement. Churches are exempt.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement. "I believe this proposal strikes the appropriate balance between respecting religious freedom and increasing access to important preventive services."

That is not, however, how the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sees it. "To force American citizens to choose between violating their consciences and forgoing their healthcare is literally unconscionable," said the group's president, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, in a statement. "It is as much an attack on access to health care as on religious freedom."

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