WASHINGTON • Even as angry Catholic leaders vow to fight a new federal requirement that most employers include contraceptives in their health insurance coverage, President Barack Obama's administration believes any political damage will be limited because it's on the side of women's rights.

Democratic strategists think voters who oppose Obama because of the birth-control rule wouldn't have voted for him anyway. The strategists say most Catholic women — like most other American women — believe that birth control should be affordable and available.

The Susan G. Komen Foundation can attest to the volatility of family-planning politics. After saying it would cut off most funding to Planned Parenthood, Komen reversed itself last week in the face of public outcry.

"I think we saw with Komen that this is a country where voters, and particularly women voters, support affordable access to birth control, and that is true among Catholic women as well as women who are not Catholic," said Geoff Garin, a pollster for Democrats and Planned Parenthood.

Democratic strategists point to statistics showing widespread approval of birth control among Catholic voters, suggesting a gulf between clergy and parishioners. Catholic doctrine opposes birth control, but surveys show many Catholics use contraceptives.

The new rule stems from the 2010 health care law, which requires employers to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives to patients who want them. Churches and other houses of worship are exempt, but Catholic hospitals and universities are not. Bishops call the rule an affront to religious freedom.

The rule doesn't force doctors who object to contraception to prescribe it.

Still, angering Catholic voters — or doing anything that appears to restrict religious freedom — in swing states could come back to bite Obama.

Religious groups see the fight as about more than birth control. Sister Carol Keehan, head of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, argued that the rule potentially establishes a new test for what is and isn't a religious institution — one separate from the Internal Revenue Service definition and one that could have implications for other policies, on issues such as covering abortion.

"We have a long history in this country of ensuring that religious groups' issues are respected," Keehan said. "It's always a challenge in a pluralistic society to be sure that that's done in the appropriate way. But all of a sudden we no longer qualify, and that was a jolt."

Administration officials say that the exemptions mean religious organizations don't have to do anything that violates their beliefs, and that the law's intent is to protect the rights of employees who work for Catholic-owned institutions, many of whom are not Catholic.

Though Obama won the Catholic vote in 2008 by 9 percentage points, he lost among those voters who attend church weekly by 8 percentage points. Sen. John McCain won white Catholics by 5 percentage points.

Aligning himself with the interests of women is crucial if Obama is to win a second term. He garnered 53 percent of female voters in 2008, besting McCain by 13 percentage points.

The administration pledges to stand behind its decision.