White House Birth Control Stance Criticized by Religious and Liberal Groups

As Barack Obama revs up his re-election campaign, a White House shift to the right on birth control and health insurance for women has some of the president’s most loving liberals threatening to leave his embrace.

The president is under pressure from conservatives and religious groups to soften a requirement that all health insurance plans provide birth control to women who want it.

Instead of enforcing the rule immediately, the White House is reportedly signaling it might use a yearlong waiting period for the policy implementation to allow religious groups to broker a deal for hospitals and providers that don’t want to be forced to provide birth control.

The issue has already become a political football in the Republican nomination contest, where opposition to condoms and birth control is often right up there with apple pie as a winning campaign issue.