Public backs Obama in birth control fight by HUGE margin.

[FarLeftFist]

It's not even close: By a lopsided margin of 66 percent to 26 percent, Americans support President Barack Obama's proposal to require private health insurance plans to cover the full cost of birth control for women, according to a new CBS/New York Times public opinion poll.

Rephrasing the question to ask specifically about "religiously affiliated employers, such as a hospital or university," barely moved the needle, to 61 percent to 31 percent.

-----------------------------------------------

Once again, the fright-wing on the wrong side of history.

[justiceischeap]

1. I still find is disconcerting that there are 26/31 %

that support this in any way.

[Cali_Democrat]

4. Bush's approval rating during the depths of his Presidency was around 25-30%

It's the same folks.

[yardwork]

7. Yeah, it's the "back wash" that Stephen Colbert talked about.

It's sobering that 30% of the U.S. voters are morans.

What are you gonna do.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Maybe the GOP will finally come out of their bubble

and then crawl back under the rock from whence they came.

[spanone]

3. by the media coverage, you'd never know it. thanks for facts

[customerserviceguy]

5. Has anyone polled Catholics specifically?

I'd like to see a multiple choice poll that says something along the lines of:

1) Absolutely, the Catholic institutions that are not "church" need to fund contraception, just like every other business.
2) No, the Catholic institutions should never fund contraception, and neither should any other business owner who is morally opposed to birth control be forced to do this.
3) Can't we find a way to make the guy in the pointy hat, who's holier than me, happy? I mean, I'm OK with birth control, in fact my spouse and I practice it ourselves, but I'd really rather not make the monsignor at Our Lady of Perpetual Conception feel bad. Because if the President insists on it, then I might have to listen to the good monsignor when he tells me to vote for that nice Catholic guy, Rick Santorum.

Of course, the wording is clumsy for a genuine poll, but it gets across the gist of what I'm saying. The American public as a whole doesn't care if a bunch of pedophile-protecting bishops are pissed off, most of them would probably enjoy it. But the President needs almost the same proportion of Catholic vote going his way as he had in 2008 to be reasonably assured of re-election.

[quiller4]

6. Yes. Both Pew and PPP

and the percentage of Catholics that support the rule Obama put forth Friday is higher than the percentage of the population at large.


I am really critical of press coverage on this issue. It seems to me that some investigative reporters should have uncovered the fact that a significant number of Catholic diocese already provide this coverage as do the majority of Catholic institutions of higher education.

The bishops are posturing to avoid disclosing this and to mollify the Catholic right. It is all about posturing that you are trying to protect the interests of your big donors. So far the only major publication to raise this issue is NCR. Why didn't EJ Dionne or one of the other political writers with sourses in the religious community delve into this?

[customerserviceguy]

8. I haven't seen those polls

perhaps you have a link? Also, I'd sure like to see the wording used.

[_ed_]

10. Any Catholic who currently uses or has used contraception

in the past is a hypocrite if they disagree with the President. 98% of Catholics don't believe their own faith and ignore the edicts on contraception.

Who is arguing here? The other 2%?

So we're flipping out about 2% of American Catholics getting upset? Only in America.

[customerserviceguy]

11. To be a Catholic in America

is to be a hypocrite, unless you're so freaking out there that you side 100% with the Pope on everything, and loudly. The vast majority of Catholics I've known have been "cafeteria Catholics", who pick and choose what they want to believe and what practices they wish to follow.

I was last one in 1984, had my vasectomy in 1983, and at the Knights of Columbus "after meeting" at the bar in the Mexican restaurant, I learned that I knew more Catholics who had a vasectomy than non-Catholics who did. They rationalized it by saying, "better for me to commit one sin, than my wife committing a sin every day by taking the Pill."

That's what Catholics do, they rationalize. But they don't call out any of their fellow Catholics for being "purer", and they sure don't do that with priests, bishops and cardinals. It's just understood that those clerics are always going to be "holier" than ordinary everyday Catholics, and the Catholic people defend their right to be that way.

[_ed_]

12. My two cents:

If you're a Catholic and you donate money to the Catholic church, you're supporting a vast child rape conspiracy with both moral and financial support. Your financial support is being used to pay out billions of dollars to victims of child rape.

Sorry, but calling it a "religion" doesn't change the fact that the organization is still unrepentant about child rape. The biggest villains were promoted higher, the biggest villain is now their Pope.

You either quit the church lock, stock, and barrel, or you are complicit.

[varelse]

9. K&R

[spanone]

13. republicans are the charlie sheens of america