It is a very strange fact: the signal accomplishment of Barack Obama’s past four years in office is Obamacare, yet it remains unpopular and mostly out of sight in the campaign. Candy Crowley did not seen fit to call on any undecided Democratic voter at the Hofstra University debate who wanted to raise Obamacare as an issue. Nevertheless, President Obama injected it in response to the question posed by Katherine Fenton. Obama said:
In my health care bill, I said insurance companies need to provide contraceptive coverage to everybody who is insured. Because this is not just a — a health issue, it’s an economic issue for women. It makes a difference. This is money out of that family’s pocket. Governor Romney not only opposed it, he suggested that in fact employers should be able to make the decision as to whether or not a woman gets contraception through her insurance coverage.
That’s not the kind of advocacy that women need. When Governor Romney says that we should eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood, there are millions of women all across the country, who rely on Planned Parenthood for, not just contraceptive care, they rely on it for mammograms, for cervical cancer screenings. That’s a pocketbook issue for women and families all across the country. And it makes a difference in terms of how well and effectively women are able to work. When we talk about child care, and the credits that we’re providing. That makes a difference in whether they can go out there and — and earn a living for their family.
These are not just women’s issues. These are family issues. These are economic issues.
And one of the things that makes us grow as an economy is when everybody participates and women are getting the same fair deal as men are.
CROWLEY: Mr. President…
OBAMA: And I’ve got two daughters and I want to make sure that they have the same opportunities that anybody’s sons have. That’s part of what I’m fighting for as president of the United States.
Here Obama was bragging about the outrageous Obamacare mandate that requires employers in general and religious institutions in particular to provide “preventive services” including contraceptives, sterilization and abortifacients. It illustrates the tyrannical nature of Obamacare and raises a core question of religious freedom. Governor Romney fought to get in this limited response:
I’d just note that I don’t believe that bureaucrats in Washington should tell someone whether they can use contraceptives or not. And I don’t believe employers should tell someone whether they could have contraceptive care of not. Every woman in America should have access to contraceptives. And — and the — and the president’s statement of my policy is completely and totally wrong.
As Wesley Smith states in the new issue of the Weekly Standard:
The promulgation of the free birth control rule indicates the regulatory road ahead. The government now requires every covered employer to provide health insurance that offers birth control and sterilization surgeries free of charge—even if such drugs and procedures violate the religious beliefs of the employer. Only houses of worship and monastic communities are exempt. Religious institutions have until August 1, 2013, to comply.
This point should be made at every opportunity as a predicate to rolling back Obamacare in the event that Governor Romney is elected president.
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