February 13, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Opponents of the Obama Administration’s birth control mandate are rallying behind another White House petition that rejects the President’s recent revision and calls for a complete rescinding of the rule.
A previous petition to abolish the rule, created in late January, had accused the Administration of attempting “to represent ‘transcendental truth’ on matters of conscience,” by forcing all employers, including Catholics and members of other pro-life denominations, to cover birth control and abortion-inducing drugs on their employee’s health plans.
“That in itself is unprecedented, which is also why it is unconstitutional,” the petition charged.
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The statement garnered 29,127 signatures, prompting an official response authored by Cecilia Munoz, Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council. According to the current rules of the White House’s “We the People” petition site, if a petition garners 25,000 signatures within a set period of time, the Administration must submit an official response.
In the official response Munoz appealed to the Administration’s recent “accommodation” which, she said, would have insurance companies, rather than actual employers “reach out and provide” contraception to the employees. She also cited statements from the liberal Catholic groups Catholics United and the Catholic Health Association, as well as Planned Parenthood and NARAL, praising the President’s revision of the mandate.
The new petition, posted Saturday, responded to Munoz’s claims by pointing out that the revision still requires Catholic employers to pay for services that violate Church teaching, even if they do not have to directly communicate with the employee about it.
The petition called the Administration’s compromise simply a reiteration of the mandate, adding: “This requirement continues to assault the rights of religious freedom and conscience that are the founding principles of this nation and our highest values.”
The signature count on the petition broke 500 by Monday afternoon, but another 24,500 are still needed before the White House will officially respond again.
To add your name to the petition, click here.