Women's support for Obama drops in wake of HHS mandate

By Michelle Bauman

A recent poll shows that President Barack Obama's approval ratings dropped 12 percentage points among women voters, despite claims that a federal contraception mandate would help his bid for re-election.

“It’s definitely something that young women are concerned about,” said Kristan Hawkins, executive director of Students for Life of America.

Hawkins told CNA on March 13 that beyond just contraception or abortion, the mandate touches on the issue of religious freedom, which is clear to any woman in the U.S. “whether she’s religious or not.”

“It goes too far,” she said, adding that women are beginning to ask fundamental questions about what the government would be able to regulate next if this mandate were to succeed.

In recent weeks, political analysts have suggested that Obama’s re-election campaign will receive a significant boost in women's votes due to its support for a controversial federal contraception mandate.

But a New York Times/CBS News poll shows that Obama's approval rating among women has plummeted at three times the rate as men within the last few weeks.

The poll, conducted March 7-11, revealed that the president's approval rating among Americans has fallen from 50 percent last month to an all-time low of 41 percent.

While Obama’s approval rating dipped just four percentage points among men, it dropped by 12 percentage points among women.

The decrease in women's support comes amid debate over a Jan. 20 mandate issued by the Obama administration under the new health care law. Introduced by the Department of Health and Human Services, the mandate will soon require employers to offer health care plans that include full coverage of contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, even if doing so violates their consciences.

Faced with a storm of protest from those who argued that the mandate violated First Amendment guarantees of religious freedom, President Obama promised an “accommodation” for religious freedom on Feb. 10.

Under the “accommodation,” which was never incorporated into the original mandate, religious employers would not directly buy the controversial coverage but would instead purchase health care plans from insurance companies that would be required to provide it free of charge.
Full Story