Catholics' approval of Obama virtually unchanged during debate over contraceptive rule

American Catholics' approval of President Obama remained virtually the same during a week when his administration introduced — and later backed off from — a rule to force health insurance providers to offer contraceptive care free of charge. 

The administration's birth-control mandate was met with fierce opposition from conservatives, and its “accommodation” did not win over the White House’s most harsh critics.

According to a new Gallup Poll released on Tuesday, Obama had the approval of 46 percent of Catholics last week. The week before that found 49 percent of Catholics approved of the job Obama was doing. In late January, 45 percent of Catholics approved of the job Obama was doing. 

The poll's findings might come as a surprise after last week's intense opposition to to the rule. Obama announced a new rule requiring that health insurers, including certain religious institutions, provide contraceptive care to employees without a co-pay. The response among opponents of the rule was strongly voiced and the administration quickly changed to appease some of its critics. 

On Friday the Obama administration changed the rule so that insurers of those religious institutions had to provide contraceptive care, rather than the institutions themselves. The change seemed to appease some but not all of the critics of the rule.

The president's job approval among all Americans stood at 47 percent, according to Gallup's poll.

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