Catholic Group Backs Obama Birth Control Policy

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House has support from a key Roman Catholic health group on its compromise birth control policy.

Sister Carol Keehan heads the Catholic Health Organization. She says the compromise “has responded to the issues we identified that needed to be fixed.”

Senior administration officials tell The Associated Press the compromise policy says religious employers won’t have to cover birth control for their employees, after all.

Instead, insurance companies will be directly responsible for providing free contraception.

Keehan says the resolution “protects the religious liberty and conscience rights of Catholic institutions.”

And Planned Parenthood Federation of America says the approach “does not compromise a woman’s ability to access these critical birth control benefits.”