Religious groups irked by contraception mandate

(RNS) The Obama administration is taking heat from religious groups,
particularly Catholic leaders, upset that new federal health regulations
may force them to pay for employees' birth control, a violation of
church tenets.

Proposed religious exemptions to the new regulations, which were
unveiled on Aug. 1 by the Department of Health and Human Services, are
considered so narrow that even Catholic officials considered friendly to
President Obama argue that they should be changed.

"I call this the parish housekeeper exemption -- that's about all it
covers," Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health
Association, a 600-member umbrella group for Catholic hospitals, told
The Associated Press.