While the Obama administration’s recent decision on contraception has caused a stir, it’s worth pausing to appreciate the fact that most Roman Catholics already agree with the White House.
A majority of Catholics believe their employers should be required to provide coverage for contraception and birth control, according to a poll released Tuesday from the nonprofit research organization the Public Religion Research Institute.
The poll found that a solid majority of Catholics, 58 percent, say contraception and birth control should be a required, no-cost benefit under their company’s healthcare plan.
Support, not surprisingly, is fairly broad among most groups. The only constituency opposed to the coverage in this poll was self-identified white evangelicals. The Public Religion Research Institute released this chart with its survey results:
By the reasoning of the White House’s critics on this issue, people of faith are apparently hostile towards people of faith.
Incidentally, let’s also note that many Catholic institutions already cover contraception in their health care plans. Igor Volsky had a good report on this earlier: Twenty-eight states already require organizations that offer prescription insurance to cover contraception and since 98 percent of Catholic women use birth control, many Catholic institutions offer the benefit to their employees. For instance, a Georgetown University spokesperson told ThinkProgress yesterday that employees “have access to health insurance plans offered and designed by national providers to a national pool. These plans include coverage for birth control.” Similarly, an informal survey conducted by Our Sunday Visitor found that many Catholic colleges have purchased insurance plans that provide contraception benefits. As this “controversy” continues to unfold, here’s hoping these details don’t get left out of the debate.
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