WASHINGTON (AP) — Under fierce election-year fire, President Barack Obama on Friday abruptly abandoned his stand that religious organizations must pay for free birth control for workers, scrambling to end a furor raging from the Catholic Church to Congress to his re-election foes. He demanded that insurance companies step in to provide the coverage instead. Obama’s compromise means ultimately that women would still get birth control without having to pay for it, no matter where they work. The president insisted... Read more

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama, struggling with a political storm that threatened to keep building, announced a birth control compromise Friday that he said would both protect religious liberties and ensure that the nation’s women have access to free contraception. After weeks of growing controversy, Obama backed off a recently announced requirement for religious-affiliated employers to provide free birth control coverage even if it runs counter to their beliefs. Instead, workers at such institutions will be able to get... Read more

WASHINGTON (AP) — A person familiar with the decision says President Barack Obama will announce a plan to accommodate religious employers outraged by a rule that would require them to cover birth control for women free of charge. Obama is expected to make the announcement at the White House on Friday. The administration announced in January that religious-affiliated employers had to cover birth control as preventative care for women. Churches and houses of worship were exempt, but all other affiliated... Read more

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama declared Friday he has found a solution that will protect religious liberty but also ensure that women have access to free birth control, as he rushed to defuse an election-year political uproar that threatened to overtake his administration. Capping weeks of growing controversy, Obama announced he was backing off a newly announced requirement for religious employers to provide free birth control coverage even if it runs counter to their religious beliefs. Instead, workers at... Read more

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Friday will announce that religious employers will not have to cover birth control for their employees after all, The Associated Press has learned. His move marks a retreat in the face of a political uproar. Instead, the administration will demand that insurance companies be the ones directly responsible for providing free contraception. Obama’s abrupt shift is an attempt to satisfy both sides of a deeply sensitive debate, and most urgently, to end a... Read more

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney was ending a shaky week for him Friday with a pitch to the conservative Republican base that handed him three state losses this week and continues to suspect his more moderate social views. Three of the four Republican presidential candidates were addressing a major conservative gathering in Washington that promises to give a warmer welcome to Rick Santorum, whose triple win this week was a reminder that the race to challenge President Barack Obama in... Read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The child-molestation scandal in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has taken a mysterious new turn, with prosecutors asking a coroner to examine the body of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua to establish whether he died of natural causes. Risa Vetri Ferman, district attorney in suburban Montgomery County, said Friday that she wants to lay to rest any speculation about Bevilacqua’s end, given the “peculiar” timing of the 88-year-old cardinal’s death just a day after a judge ruled him competent to... Read more

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A suburban Philadelphia prosecutor said Friday she suggested that the coroner’s office investigate the recent death of a Roman Catholic cardinal because of what she called “odd” timing, saying she wanted to put to rest any speculation since he died a day after a judge had found him competent to testify at the child-endangerment trial of his longtime aide. Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua died on Jan. 31 at age 88. Bevilacqua was suffering from dementia and cancer,... Read more

WASHINGTON (AP) — Social issues dominated the 2012 presidential race Friday, as President Barack Obama tried to calm a storm over religion and birth control and the Republicans vying to replace him jockeyed to outdo each other in proving their conservative fervor. There was little time left for talk of jobs and the economy, subjects still expected to dominate the fall election. In that sense, the day’s events may become little more than a footnote. But Democrats hope the unusually... Read more

WASHINGTON (AP) — GOP presidential rivals made contrasting appeals to conservatives Friday, with Mitt Romney saying he proved his mettle as Massachusetts governor and Rick Santorum saying Romney is so moderate that electing him would be a “hollow victory.” Their speeches to the Conservative Political Action Conference came as Santorum tries to convert his surprising caucus wins this week into a resilient, muscular campaign and Romney seeks to persuade conservatives that he won’t disappoint them. Santorum’s tack was unorthodox, and... Read more