PRRI’s Jones points out that Americans care deeply about religious liberty. It’s just that they don’t see the contraception rule as an infringement of it. Of the people who cited religious liberty as being under attack in America, PRRI/RNS asked people to tell them in their own words where they thought it was being threatened. Contraception placed at the bottom, with only 6 percent of people citing it as a top religious liberty issue. The most frequently mentioned reasons are the removal or God and religion from the public square (23 percent), government interference in religion (20 percent), and hostility toward Christians or religion (10 percent).

Despite the adversarial approach of their critics, the Obama administration continues to work to address the concerns that have been raised. The Department of Health and Human Services announced Friday the release of a new advanced rule that lays out more of the specifics of President Obama’s accommodation announcement for ensuring that religious organizations’ funds will not go toward contraceptive coverage and that insurers will bear the burden of this requirement. The administration addresses concerns over self-insured plans at religious universities and colleges and clarifies that the government is not creating a precedent over what is or is not a religious institution. Critics have raised both issues in their protest of the rule. The public will have a 90-day comment period to respond to the new information prior to the rule going into effect.