President Barack Obama announces the revamp of his contraception policy requiring religious institutions to fully pay for birth control, during a statement, Friday, Feb. 10, 2012, in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Church and state will collide when the Obama administration begins enforcing a mandate ordering Church-affiliated hospitals to provide contraception to employees free of charge. While it's still a year away, the controversial policy is already parting political and religious waters here in the Bay Area. NBC Bay Area's George Kiriyama reports from Santa Clara.
South Florida Catholic scholars reacted to President Barack Obama's announcement that employees at religious institutions, like Catholic universities and charities will be able to get free contraception directly from health insurance companies.
"That shift is a good and positive shift in the right direction," said Father Alfred Cioffi of St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens.
But he wondered how financially involved a religious institution must be with an insurance company.
"It's going to cost the insurance companies something to pay for those contraceptives, and that slice is going to be charged to the catholic church or to the Catholic institution," Father Cioffi said.
And he has a problem with that.
"Because now we have been engaged and that's what I mean about back door stuff," he said.
The Archdiocese of Miami is waiting for more details on the president's new approach to the birth control issue, especially since the Archdiocese is self-insured.
In a prepared statement Archbishop Thomas Wenski said: "...it is not apparent that dioceses that are self-insured would be granted relief by this proposed compromise put forth without serious talk with the aggrieved parties."
"The administration continues to insist that the issue is about contraception; we disagree. It is about the first freedom of our Bill of Rights: the freedom of religious and respect for the rights of conscience," the statement said.
Obama's health care law requires most insurance plans to cover, for free, women's preventative health services, including wellness visits, domestic violence screening and contraception.
Many see the contraception mandate as government getting into the business of religion and violating the separation of church and state.
At the CPAC conference in Washington, presidential candidate Rick Santorum said it's not about birth control.
"It's about freedom of religion. It's about government control of your lives and it's got to stop," Santorum said.
