His Middle Name is "Capitulation,"

so why should anybody be surprised over Obama's attempt to pander to the Catholic vote?

In fact, if any issue of religious freedom was involved, it was raised by the refusal of employers to provide health care coverage for contraceptives in the first place. There is no justification for denying coverage for contraceptives except religious doctrine, and for millions of families struggling to make ends meet, the denial of coverage for medical care is the same as the denial of medical care itself.

The new Orwellian understanding of the First Amendment championed by the religious right—to which the Obama administration has now adapted itself—turns “religious freedom” upside down. Under the new doctrine, the First Amendment, instead of ensuring freedom from religious persecution, ensures the freedom to persecute and discriminate on the basis of religion.