A week ago, the press had a good time with Mitt Romney saying he was not concerned about the very poor - - they have a safety net after all. But, the Post-Dispatch and other media heavyweights have been reticent to comment on the Obama Adminsitration's ham-handed handling of "Contraceptive-gate".

In January, President Obama approved a ruling by the Health and Human Services Department requiring private insurance plans of Catholic Church-sponsored institutions to provide coverage for contraceptives, abortifacients and sterilizations. Both the Church and individual Catholics voluably protested forced inclusion of these "services" on religious grounds with no opt-out or conscience clause. In spite of media complicity (read "silence"), one almost hears screaming behind closed doors as the White House begins a sure retreat on one constituency or another. Make no mistake, this blunder was created entirely by the White House.

Including contraceptives in an insurance mandate is not a meaningful fight. Let's be real: contraceptive costs never drove popular support for national healthcare. Paying for the Pill did not drive up costs of healthcare; contraception is relatively cheap. This story isn't about the money. Rather, the Administration stumbled into this imbroglio over a faulty assumption, that Catholics who use contraceptives would turn on unpopular bishops and support a populist president. Nearly all Catholics and other religious and non-religious Americans can see the devil-in-details involved when government restricts the means by which citizens express their beliefs. Bishops may be unpopular in this moment. But a president who myopically forces the hand of Catholic institutions to close or restrict services just doesn't get it.

Recently, the Komen Foundation bowed to pressure created by a social media campaign in favor of Planned Parenthood with attendant media midwifery. Will coverage be comparable as the Obama Administration tries to unravel the mess of its own making? Don't be on it. Our simplistic media needs a villian for its perfunctory analysis, and the trail for this story does not lead to Mitt Romney or the Komen Foundation.

 

Brian T. McCarthy

St. Louis