[O'brien:] Welcome back, everybody. The White House may consider changing a controversial contraception plan. At issue is a rule that would require employers to offer free birth control in their health care plans and that includes Catholic universities and charities. And it's been prompted debate about religious freedom. We'll start this morning with Democratic Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal who supports the plan. Morning, sir. Nice to talk to you. Thank you for talking with us.
[Sen. Richard Blumenthal, , Connecticut:] Thank you.
[O'brien:] There was some confusion yesterday, when you saw David Axelrod talking about the desire to, quote, "respect the prerogatives of religious institutions." That sent a lot of people into a dizzy. They thought the White House is now backing away from this. The White House tried to clear up the confusion, saying that the president wanted to find, quote, "appropriate balance between religious beliefs and convictions." What does this all mean? Where does this stand this morning?
[Blumenthal:] Where it stands is the essential principle is that the costs of birth control really should be covered. It's about $500 a year for every individual woman. Because it respects the rights and opportunities for women to make basic choices. And that rule was recommended by the Institute of Medicine, an unbiased scientific group, as a matter of health policy. Politicians and politics should, in effect, not be interfering with those rights and with good health policies. So 28 states respect that rule. They have respectful, balanced laws that require coverage for birth control. And the effort now to take away that right or revoke it or restrain it is simply unfounded. I'm hoping that the administration will stick to the rule.
[O'brien:] I know you know that religious institutions have said politics should stay out of our business. Politics should restrict that so that we are exempted from this rule because it goes against what we believe. Archbishop Timothy Dolan said it's un-American. The Boston archdiocese is talking about dropping health care coverage for employees. Was this impact of this decision not foreseen, that Catholic organizations would come out against it very strongly?
[Blumenthal:] The rule does exempt
[O'brien:] Narrowly.
[Blumenthal:] all churches, 335,000 churches.
[O'brien:] Yes, churches, not universities and the institutions that are run by those churches. Those are not exempt.
[Blumenthal:] And individuals who are employed or students who go to those institutions can make those individual choices based on their religious convictions or conscience or other principles. Those individual decisions are to be respected. And, remember, that the institutions are not required to provide services, only coverage for services that individuals can make a decision to use or not use. And we're talking about basic health policy, good, preventive health care recommended by the Institute of Medicine because it is cost effective.
[O'brien:] Does it become a political issue? When you look at the map of sort of the states where there are not those 28 states that you talked about. Those are states that are the swing states. And those are the states that are in white where the provision has not been passed. So do you worry about that as a political issue?
[Blumenthal:] The main point is that politics has no role, should have no role in health care policy. And the outpouring overwhelming across the country when the Susan Komen Foundation for the Cure decided to ban grants to Planned Parenthood I think shows that people generally feel that politics should not be interfering in those individual choices. Remember, 99 percent of all women use birth control at some point in their lives. The polls show that people generally think these decisions ought to be made by individuals as a matter of their own conscience and religious convictions. This rule basically strikes a respectful balance. The effort, ideological base to take away that right I think is really unfounded.
[O'brien:] Senator Blumenthal, I thank you for your time. We'll get right to Senator John Hoeven who is a Republican from North Dakota. Nice to see you. You just heard what the other Senator said. What do you think of his position?
[Sen. John Hoeven, , North Dakota:] Look, our country has been founded on the principle of religious freedom. This decision goes counter to that founding principle. And in essence, religious organizations and their affiliates now have to provide services through their health insurance program that go against their moral beliefs.
[O'brien:] Provide options, right? They're providing the option. If the person decides they don't want to have birth control pills, they certainly don't have to purchase them, but in terms of insurance, they have to provide the option.
[Hoeven:] Under the Obama health care plan, they're required to provide insurance that includes things like contraceptives, sterilization, things that go against the teachings and the beliefs, the value system of that religious organization. And they're required to provide that through their affiliates, whether it's a school or a hospital.
[O'brien:] They're required to provide the option for it. The person who has the insurance could decide if they actually wanted to go ahead and get the service or not. But let me ask you a question about this poll. I know you've seen this. Senator Blumenthal talked about 99 percent of women in their lives who are sexually active have used contraceptives. That number in the high 80s for Catholic women. 55 percent of Americans agree, in this poll, employers should be required to cover contraception plans. Contraception is really expensive. It's like 600 bucks a year. 58 percent, so higher than overall-Americans, 58 percent of Catholics agree. Isn't the issue really between Catholics who want to use contraception, in a way, the employer should stay out of it and offer the choice?
[Hoeven:] It's not just Catholics, it's any religion. It's requiring any organization to provide services that violate their belief system. Look, our Constitution, our whole system of government provides for freedom of religion. This is a clear infringement. And this is an example of what we're going to get with government-run health care. It's not just the Catholic Church that's pushing back. You will see it you see it already on a broad basis across the country. This is it's the wrong approach. And I think you're going to see a very, very strong push back until the administration does do the right thing and reverse it. Matter of fact, myself and others have legislation to do just that.
[O'brien:] Senator John Hoeven joining us. He's a Republican from North Dakota. It's nice to have you, sir. We appreciate your time this morning.
[Hoeven:] Thank you, Soledad.
[O'brien:] Thank you. Ahead, Santorum sweeps, but what about Gingrich? Can he stay in the race until the convention as he's been promising? We're going to talk to someone from his campaign at the top of the hour. Plus, the first lady is on Jimmy Fallon.