I am a Democat and a Tim Kaine supporter, and will be very happy to vote for him in November...but in this case he is dead wrong. There is already a religious exemption in place. Churches themselves are not required to follow this, nor are religious institutions being forced to pay for birth control. And there is no requirement that anyone use birth control. It requires that insurance companies offering plans cover birth control without a copay. Plans such as this re in place in numerous states in the country including Georgia and Massachusetts (signed by then Gov. Romney).

This is a public health measure, one that has wide acceptance in the country. Just because someone works for an organization that is owned by a religious institution does not mean they should receive a lesser level of health care benefits. Whether followers use it or not is up the the person. And it is up to their church hierarchy to deal with infractions.

It is not the Government's job to enforce church doctrine.

Over half of all women in this country have used birth control for reason other than to simply prevent pregnancy, including std and cancer prevention. To deny women legally available therapies just because it conflicts with church doctrine is unacceptable. I am disappointed that Governor Kaine has given in on this. It is a poor decision.

As a follow-up, in case anyone is interested, Tim Kaine posted the following statement on his Facebook page:

"I want to thank all of you that have weighed in here on my recent comments about contraceptive access. I know some of you are disappointed, so I wanted to take a moment to explain where I stand. I was so proud to see our President sign into law health care reform that includes mandatory health insurance coverage for contraceptive care. I've always believed in a woman's right to make her own health and reproductive decisions. While some of my opponents would restrict access to contraception by repealing the Affordable Care Act, or — even worse — make some forms illegal by passing a Personhood Amendment, I strongly believe that making contraception more accessible was absolutely the right thing to do. At the same time, I was concerned about religious institutions being forced to violate their own religious beliefs. What I don't want to see is women's rights being pitted against religious rights. There's too much of that kind of division in our country these days. Instead, I've urged the Administration to work towards a compromise solution. Many states have grappled with this exact issue, and have found ways to ensure access to affordable contraception while protecting the rights of religious institutions. If that can be done in the states, it can be done in Washington, and that's the outcome I'm hoping for." www.facebook.com/timkaine

Any thoughts?

I gotta admit the President really threaded the needle on this one. How he managed to get Planned Parenthood and the Catholic Hospital Association on board with this is beyond me. I definitely underestimated him on this. Now if Republicans want to continue to make this an issue they won't have the fig leaf of religious freedom to cover their actual agenda of denying contraception period (which is what the Bishops want).

I am glad I didn't attend church, I would have walked out. Women have been treated so badly by the church, it is unbelievable how much we as women allow them to do. They take care of their priests and not the nuns, they don't want girls working on the altars, etc. etc. The church needs to take care of the problem with the priests which they are ignoring! I keep saying Penn State did more about their sex abuse problem than the Catholic church ever did. Check out this site see if you can find the former St. Veronica priest in the lists of many: http://bishopaccountability.org/