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Timothy Cardinal Dolan yesterday accused the Obama administration of “strangling” religious freedom by requiring Catholic employers to provide workers with birth control coverage.
Dolan also called the contraception edict a “horror” to the church a day after he joined a dozen federal lawsuits to have it overturned.
“I worry that members of [President Obama’s] administration might not particularly understand our horror at the restricted nature of the exemption that they’re giving us,” Dolan told CBS’s “This Morning” program.
“For the first time, we can remember, a bureau of the federal government seems to be radically intruding on what the term of a church is.”
The cardinal’s attack on the birth-control mandate has political overtones for Obama, who is trying to hold on to blue-collar and Catholic voters.
In 2008, Obama won 54 percent of the Catholic vote. A Gallup poll last month showed Catholics evenly split between Obama and Republican Mitt Romney at 46 percent each.
The White House pushed the mandate as a pro-women’s health measure with another constituency in mind: women voters.
The mandate, which takes effect Aug. 1, requires all health plans in the country to cover contraception, including Catholic-run schools, hospitals and social services. In the case of religious objections, insurance companies would still be required to offer birth-control coverage at no cost to the employee.
Dolan argues the narrow exemption is a joke.
“This is about religious freedom, it’s not about contraception,” Dolan said. “What we’re worried about now is the exemption given to the churches is so strangling, and so narrow.”
The cardinal said it’s “presumptuous” that a “bureau of the federal government is attempting to define for the church the extent of its ministry and ministers.”
The White House defended the policy against Dolan’s criticism.
“That objective that the president outlined is twofold — one, ensure that women across America receive these important preventive services, including contraception; and two, respect religious liberty,” said Obama spokesman Jay Carney.
No religious organization will have to pay for or refer workers to contraceptive services, nor have to provide the services directly, although in most cases, the insurer would still have to offer the coverage, Carney said.
“Our doors remain open” to Catholic leaders, he added.
Meanwhile, Kentucky Democrats sent the president a message, showing strong support for “uncommitted” instead of Obama in yesterday’s primary.
Obama got 58 percent of the vote but “uncommitted” won 42 percent.
Earlier this month in West Virginia, jailed felon Keith Russell Judd pulled 42 percent of the vote — a sign of Obama’s problems in Appalachia.