Obama, seeking to quell birth control furor, shifts cost to insurers

Now, in his speech Friday afternoon to a big conservative conference in Washington, Romney faces pressure to convince this key constituency that he would fight for their causes as president. As governor of Massachusetts, he instituted a health-care reform that served as the model for Obama’s reform. He has also claimed that he fought to overturn a mandate for birth control coverage when he became governor, though some Democrats in Massachusetts dispute that.

Catholic Democrats who had criticized the White House’s original proposed rule responded positively to Obama’s announcement.

“There are some who have wrongly used this debate to pit women's rights against freedom of religion,” said former Gov. Tim Kaine (D) of Virginia, who is running for the US Senate. “The steps taken by the White House show that there is a way to respect both.”

But it seemed doubtful that Friday’s announcement would end the larger political debate.

At CPAC – the Conservative Political Action Conference – speakers used the uproar as a springboard to attack the administration and burnish their images as defenders of religious liberty and of the unborn. Some religious conservatives oppose the use of birth control pills, as they can work as an abortifacient.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), who ran for president in 2008, thanked Obama for giving social conservatives a new spark.  

“You have done more than any person in the entire GOP field, [more than] any candidate has done, to bring this party to unity and energize this party as a result of your attack on religious liberty and the attack on the personhood of every human being in America,” said Mr. Huckabee.

“Thank you President Obama,” he continued, “for doing what apparently none of us Republicans could apparently get done.”

Staff writer David Grant contributed to this report. 

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