Normally, local-TV interviews at the White House tend to be ho-hum, starstruck affairs at which genuinely newsworthy developments are few and far between.
Six months since the Obama administration announced a sweeping contraceptive mandate, however, and days after much of the US church concluded two weeks of prayer for religious liberty -- an effort largely spurred by the HHS proposal's reach into Catholic institutions -- a reporter from New Orleans' CBS affiliate, WWL, asked the President about the policy earlier today during an availability intended to focus on an East Room announcement of enhanced tax-cuts.
Here, the POTUS' exchange with WWL's Karen Swensen....
Over recent weeks, the mandate -- and its subsequent "accommodation" announced by the Democratic White House -- have been deemed insufficient by two of the administration's key church allies: the national office of Catholic Charities and the Catholic Health Association, the latter's support of the Affordable Care Act having proved crucial to the bill's passage over the objections of the US bishops.
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