WH spokeswoman cites ‘98 percenters’ in defense of contraception rule

posted at 12:34 pm on February 10, 2012 by

After having sparked yet another bitter national debate (call it Contraceptiongate) the White House has caved—sort of. It announced this morning that it will “accommodate” religious groups by tweaking the ObamaCare mandate that requires Catholic-run institutions to cover birth control in their health insurance plans.

Jake Tapper of ABC News quotes a White House source as saying that this proposal is an “accommodation,” not a “compromise.” (Democratic leaders are still smarting over the president’s last compromise in 2010.)

In an effort to put a happy face on its efforts at appeasement, the Obama campaign sent deputy manager Stephanie Cutter to appear as guest on CNN’s Starting Point—where she promptly skunked the deal by allowing it to be called a “compromise.”

In this video clip of the appearance, host Soledad O’Brien asks, “Is it possible, in fact, to make everyone happy in a compromise?” Cutter replies, “It’s already happening, Soledad.” (When asked later whether “the President [would] say, yeah, what he has done was a mistake, and now he’s backing away from the mistake?” Cutter whiffed again, replying, “This is not abortion, this is birth control.”)

But the most telling part of the interview comes in Cutter’s claim that “98% of Catholic women have taken it. The debate on this is over.”

Mediaite’s Nano di Fino observes that Cutter is likely misquoting a poll that states that 98% of sexually active Catholic women have used birth control in some form.

But take a minute to evaluate Cutter’s calculus. A 2011 study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, which appeared in the National Catholic Reporter, asserted that “the US Catholic population is currently 77.7 million.” It is fair to assume that roughly half that population is female—that there are some 38.6 million Catholic women living in the U.S.

Even if Cutter’s claim were accurate, her assertion would be tantamount to saying that the religious convictions of 772,000 Americans (2% of 38.6 million) are necessary casualties of ObamaCare. With some finessing that can certainly make a neat bumper sticker.

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First the Public Religion Research Institute Poll was from a sample of 1009 adults – the religious breakdown of the sample was not disclosed.

Second, the 98% statistic comes from a survey by the Guttmacher Foundation. Alan Guttmacher was a founder and past president of Planned Parenthood – http://www.guttmacher.org/about/alan-bio.html

Third, the 98% statistic doesn’t even work demographically. Assuming the representation of Catholic women is similar to the US Census of all women, only 38% of US women are of child bearing age, and that statistic wouldn’t account for Catholic women who do follow church teaching, are of a religious vocation, the growing number of young people who are not sexually active, women who cannot bear children for medical reasons and those who take birth control pills off label to remedy other medical issues.

2nd Ammendment Mother on February 10, 2012 at 12:54 PM

When I try to reduce this “compromise” to an intelligent explanation this is the best I can come up with:

My husband is diabetic and his doctor specifically told me not to buy a chocolate cake for his birthday; therefore I gave our son $20 to buy the chocolate cake, he delivered it and sang Happy Birthday. Therefore, my conscience should be clear because I did not buy my husband a chocolate birthday cake.

2nd Ammendment Mother on February 10, 2012 at 1:00 PM

If a law requires selective enforcement, it is a bad law.

cthulhu on February 10, 2012 at 1:05 PM

So, Obama originally required non-church religious organizations to offer insurance policies to their employees which include coverage for contraceptives and abortifacients.

After a lot of uproar about government infringing on religious rights, he modified his position so that non-church religious organizations are required to offer insurance policies to their employees which include coverage for contraceptives and abortifacients.

It’s all good, really. Move along citizens. Nothing to see here.

Laura Curtis on February 10, 2012 at 7:53 PM

There’s a much more insidious dynamic going on here. Notice that the Obama/Democratic line of defense is not that “America needs this, which should override outdated religious dogma.” Their line of defense is “even your fellow Catholics want the Church and its appendages to pay for contraceptives.” In other words, “we know what the Catholic position is better than the Bishops do.”

So the liberals and the Obama Administration are now not only treading on Catholic principles, they are dictating them. Or at least claiming to be the authoritative interpreters.

Zumkopf on February 10, 2012 at 9:15 PM

98% of Catholics use “some form” of birth control? The rhythm method is a “form” of birth control, and one which the Catholic church approves, IIRC. Abstinence is also a “form” of birth control, and another of which the church approves.

But none of this matters. It wouldn’t matter if 100% of Catholic women used the Pill, or even if they all had abortions. There is no “hypocrisy exception” to the First Amendment.

AZCoyote on February 11, 2012 at 8:42 AM