WASHINGTON (Reuters) – almost two-thirds of Americans supported the President’s policy Barack Obama which obliges employers to cover contraceptives of employed women, including majorities of Catholics, Evangelical Protestants and independent, as a poll showed on Thursday.
A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation among 1,500 adults revealed that public opinion is more divided according to party affiliation to the genre, with 83 percent of Democrats, 62 percent of Independents and 42 percent of Republicans in favor of the measure.
In total, 63 percent of Americans supported the decision, according to the data.
Adopted this month in the framework of the Obama of the 2010 health care reform law, the policy requires that the majority of employers offer coverage to contraceptives without additional and deductible payments.
Obama made a concession with the institutions of religious affiliation, as opposed to artificial contraception, Catholic hospitals and universities requiring insurers to cover the cost of birth control to their employers.
The rule does not apply to places of worship, such as churches, synagogues and mosques.
But Catholic leaders, Republican, Protestant evangelical groups and other conservatives rejected the agreement, saying it continues to violate religious freedom enshrined in the American Constitution and would cause economic problems for institutions that provide their own insurer.
The dispute triggered a bitter debate in Congress, as well as a handful of lawsuits Catholic, including a federal in Nebraska, which were joined by seven States.
Kaiser poll was released hours before the Senate vote on a Republican measure that exempt insurers and employers to offer coverage that violates a religious or moral conviction.
Voting will be practically symbolic since the House of representatives, controlled by the Democrats, will surely reject.
But the debate has given both sides a chance to position in an election year. The results of the poll could provide better news to Democrats than to Republicans.
In the debate in the Senate, Democrats were presented as defenders of health services for women, hoping to appeal to independent voters, and notably women.
The survey conducted between 13 and 19 February, with a margin of error 3 percentage points overall, shows that 67 percent of the independent women voters and 58 percent of independent men supported the President’s policy.
Senate Republicans are doomed to the argument of freedom of religion with the intention of attracting conservative Catholics and voters of similar ideas, especially important independent States, such as Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
But the data suggests a struggle uphill, with 60 percent of Catholics and 57 percent of Evangelicals in favour of the policy of Obama.
(Published in Spanish by Marion Giraldo)
