Filed by KOSU News in Health.
February 1, 2013

“The Obama administration is announcing a broader opt-out for religious nonprofits that object to providing health insurance that covers birth control,” The Associated Press reports.

According to the wire service:

“The administration is allowing religious nonprofits to offer coverage that does not include contraception. In such a case, a third-party issuer will handle all business related to providing birth-control coverage for women, according to a source familiar with the changes who spoke only on condition of anonymity.”

Some educational, charitable and other institutions, as NPR’s Julie Rovner has reported, have argued that “requiring coverage of birth control in most health insurance plans violates their religious freedom.”

Last year, Julie reported, “President Obama tried to defuse the controversy … after religious groups complained that the exemption from the requirement, which applied effectively only to actual houses of worship and groups that employ only members of a specific faith, was too narrow.”

Watch for more on this over at the Shots blog and on All Things Considered.

Update at 12:15 p.m. ET. More From The Administration:

There’s an official posting of the administration’s “fact sheet” here. The proposed rules are available here.

Update at 11:50 a.m. ET. The Administration’s Plan:

The Wall Street Journal has posted “text of the fact sheet on the proposed rules released Friday.” [Copyright 2013 NPR]