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SALT LAKE CITY — As Mitt Romney battles to hold on to the front-runner position in the race for the 2012 GOP nomination, the candidate has continued to aim his attacks more toward President Obama than the other Republican candidates. Now, he is shifting his focus to a controversial mandate that requires employers and insurance companies — with some exceptions — to provide coverage for prescription birth control with no copay, even as many Catholics are saying they support the mandate.
The mandate provides exemptions for strictly religious employers such as houses of worship, but would require religious institutions such as universities and hospitals to comply. It is set to go into effect Aug. 1, but could, under review, be delayed for up to a year.
After causing an uproar among conservatives, the White House said it would be willing to further discuss the mandate. Catholic leaders, however, are not impressed.
"There has been a lot of talk in the last couple days about compromise, but it sounds to us like a way to turn down the heat, to placate people without doing anything in particular," Anthony Picarello, general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told USA Today. "We're not going to do anything until this is fixed."
Romney has accused the Obama administration of an "assault on religion" over the mandate, saying the Catholic church should not be forced to provide birth control coverage to its employees.
Romney's attacks may not be as beneficial as he had hoped, though. The candidate's position may be in agreement with church leaders' stance on the law, but it may not do him much good with the very people whose votes he is hoping to capture.
A recent survey done by the Public Religion Research Institute found the majority of Catholics think employers should be required to cover contraceptives without a copay.
In fact, Catholic approval of the requirement was slightly higher than that of Americans as a whole. Of Catholics, 58 percent agreed that "employers should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception and birth control at no cost," while 37 percent disagreed.
Of all Americans surveyed, 55 percent agreed with the requirement and 40 percent disagreed.
The majority — 57% — of Americans said, though, that churches should not be required to cover contraceptives at no cost. Thirty-six percent of Americans said they should be required to do so.
The institute surveyed 1,009 adults in the continental United States between Feb. 1 and Feb. 5.
The survey results come as Romney tries to recover from the triple blow he received Tuesday as voters in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado all awarded Rick Santorum first place.
Romney placed second in Missouri and Colorado but placed third in Minnesota, behind Santorum and Ron Paul. The former Massachusetts governor's national polling numbers remain nearly unchanged, though, falling .02 points Thursday to a 11.8-point lead.
